White Sands National Monument

My name is Andrew Cater and I make up part of Team Yellow on this month-long research trip. As a technician that has only been with the team for a limited time I am quickly realizing how much work goes into intensive research. I certainly underestimated the workload at first, but now that I am getting used to the flow of things the days are already becoming less hectic.

I usually reside in Traverse City, and have never spent more than a few weeks away from “home”, so this trip should be an excellent all-round experience. With our first sampling location being at Jornada Experimental Range it has been quite the change of pace in terms of climate; in Michigan, it was roughly forty degrees cooler today. However, instead of spending the entire day in the dusty desert again, a truck of us decided to go explore White Sands National Monument (which is also a desert, but far less dusty).

The alarm set for 5:30am came fast, but four of us stumbled out of bed nonetheless. This was the first early morning that work was not required, so everyone was ready for an adventure. The drive to the park took roughly an hour and as we pulled in the drive the landscape resembled that of the Sleeping Bear Dunes back home in Michigan. Fortunately, the sands began to grow whiter and stripped of vegetation, making it appear more and more like an Egyptian destination. As for the sand itself, it seemed to be a mix between that of the Bahamas in terms of color, yet had the texture of fine salt granules. The part that might have been the most strange though was the feeling of the sand on my bare feet; cold and dry, despite the sun already seeming intense by 9am. We had some fun hiking around, jumping off hillsides, and some of us even unsuccessfully tried to slide down the slopes. Plenty of pictures were taken to help remember the experience, yet I cannot imagine that any of us will be forgetting this place soon.

The rest of the day consisted of a pitstop at Caliche’s for frozen custard and eventually ended with a solid few hours of board games with much of the team. Little work was done today; replaced by play that seemed to eliminate any lingering stress. Needless to conclude, it was a solid day in the remote stretches of southern New Mexico.