Hardy plants jut through the surface at White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico's Tularosa Basin. Originally a very, very large national monument, created in 1933, the location was changed to a national park in 2019. The park's 175-square-mile field of gypsum-sand is surrounded by another famous — but nearly forbidden — site: the top-secret White Sands Missile Range, whose occasional tests require that the park be closed. Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2021.