Wilderness landscape photography of sunrise over dunes in White Sands National Park in New Mexico

The golden light of a new day creates a layered composition of clouds, dunes and silhouetted mountains in White Sands National Park, New Mexico. The white dunes of the park are mostly of gypsum, which almost never forms sand because it dissolves so easily into streams that carry it to the sea. But in White Sands National Park, the waters have no outlet and the sand forms when the water evaporates, creating the otherworldly beauty the region is known for.