At a quick glance, you might mistake these dunes for massive snowdrifts. Although they do make for great sledding, the tiny crystals that form the dunes at White Sands National Park are not snow or ice but gypsum, a soft mineral often used to make plaster and chalk. The dune field became a national monument on this day in 1933 with a proclamation by President Herbert Hoover, which set aside nearly 150,000 acres for preservation. Recently, on December 20, 2019, President Trump signed legislation making it the 62nd designated national park in the National Park System.
Sands of time
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Chapel on the rock
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Cheers! It’s National Wine Day
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Waiting for winter
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The birth of Bauhaus
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Celebrating Norwegian Constitution Day
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A grotesque scene
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Traveling warblers
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Keep watching the skies
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A winter’s holiday ends
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Oh, the places you’ll go
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Put your helmet on, we’re going for a hike
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Up on the glacier
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Is that a face in the sand?
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Defying gravity on a swing ride
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Big-wave hunters watch Nazaré
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Does this chameleon look a little insecure?
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Three cheers for polar bears!
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Remembering Krakatoa
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A sleeping green giant
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A ‘circus of chaos’ for Stravinsky