Monahans after the rain
When we drove into the town of Monahans in west Texas on June 14th it was too late in the afternoon for us to continue the short distance to the attraction that had brought us there: Monahans Sandhills State Park. We could see that it had rained in the area that afternoon, and what effect that had had on the dunes became clear only the next morning. How differently textured the sand was then from the way we’d seen it in 2014 when we’d visited on the afternoon of April 12th and the morning of April 13th.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
Lovely texture!
Indira
September 19, 2017 at 5:17 AM
Yes. This picture and others I took there that morning were all about the texture of the sand, which was so different from what I found on my previous visit.
Steve Schwartzman
September 19, 2017 at 5:24 AM
A very different look. This has a wild west look to it. (Yes, I watched Westerns once upon a time. Even read Zane Grey ) Your 2014 photos had a Sahara desert look.
Gallivanta
September 19, 2017 at 6:47 AM
You’d be right to consider western Texas part of the Wild West. That’s true historically, and some people still find parts of western Texas remote. I wish I had some Sahara Desert experience to make a comparison.
Steve Schwartzman
September 19, 2017 at 8:18 AM
The only wild west I have experienced, and only briefly, is the West Coast of the South Island. Not quite on a par with western Texas.
Gallivanta
September 19, 2017 at 11:47 PM
But there are no glaciers or oceans in the American Wild West, so yours has much to offer. Eve and I count ourselves fortunate to have been to both.
Steve Schwartzman
September 19, 2017 at 11:58 PM
A basic guideline for dealing with hurricanes is, “Run from water, hide from wind.” Sand dunes can neither run nor hide, but it’s interesting that the different effects of water and wind are just as evident on their suface.
shoreacres
September 19, 2017 at 7:12 AM
This is the first time I’ve ever contemplated the possibility, even in the negative, of sand dunes running and hiding. I wonder now how long it took for these dunes to hide their rain-pocked appearance and return to their much-more-familiar rippled look.
Steve Schwartzman
September 19, 2017 at 8:38 AM
Thanks for the insight…..great tip for tracking.
MichaelStephenWills
September 19, 2017 at 7:19 AM
What do you mean by a “great tip for tracking”?
Steve Schwartzman
September 19, 2017 at 9:00 AM
Very different– love the textures surface of the sand. Wonderful image, Steve.
Jane Lurie
September 19, 2017 at 11:50 AM
Thanks, Jane. If I lived near any sand dunes, I’d get to see this look along with the more typical ones I’ve seen on my visits to other dunes. Normally I don’t favor rain on a trip, but this time it provided something unexpected and worthwhile.
Steve Schwartzman
September 19, 2017 at 11:52 AM