Elizabeth Anne VanderPutten

My White Sands

At the Edge of Life

Interdune flats are occasional areas of desert floor left exposed as dunes have moved on. 

Most of the sparse life at White Sands exists in these flats, where water sometimes collects and where roots can reach down to the moisture in the ground below.

Yuccas, shrubs and an occasional Cottonwood

Small Lake in Alkali Flats

White Sands gets only about 8 inches of rain a year, which sometimes collects in small lakes and pools in the interdune patches of desert. 

This small lake in front of Elizabeth existed in March, and was just north of the Alkali Flats Trail.