White Sands

SHORTLISTED FOR STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR From a trip to The Lightning Field in New Mexico, to chasing Gauguin's ghost in French Polynesia, White Sands is a creative exploration of why we travel. Episodic, wide-ranging and funny, Geoff Dyer blends travel writing, essay, criticism and fiction with a smart and cantankerous wit that is unmatched. From one of the most original writers in Britain, this is a book for armchair travellers and procrastinating philosophers everywhere.

Rising in a seemingly endless procession from an ancient lake bed in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico, the stark gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument grow, crest, and slump, driven by the wind. The sands form an ecological island where desert plants and animals have adapted to a bright and shifting world. This stunning book describes the area's natural and human history, including the detonation of the first atomic bomb at the nearby Trinity site. Photos by Michael Collier, plus rare historical images.

The White Sands National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located about 25 km (16 mi) southwest of Alamogordo in western Otero County and northeastern Doña Ana County in the state of New Mexico, at an elevation of 4235 feet (1291 m). The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin and comprises the southern part of a 710-km2 (275-mi2) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. It is the largest gypsum dune field in the world.--Wikipedia.