The Tularosa Basin in the northern Chihuahuan Desert is a mountain-ringed valley encompassing one of the world's great natural wonders -- the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, giant, wave-like dunes of gypsum sand move across 275 square miles of desert creating the world's largest gypsum dune field.

The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by moving dunes, but several types of small animals have evolved a white coloration that camouflages them in the gypsum sand.

White Sands National Monument preserves a major portion of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have successfully adapted to this constantly changing environment.