Yucca and Shadow, White Sands, New Mexico (Summer 2004)

This is another picture from my near epic trip through the desert. This was taken in the morning (nearly all good pictures are taken in the morning or evening, not that this is necessarily a good picture...) as I hiked out of the desert to my car to begin the last day of driving to California. This yucca may look short, but in fact it is probably at least 15 feet tall. An interesting fact about these yuccas that many people may not realize is that they grow on top of the sand as the dune tries to submerse them like a wave. Their roots and the base of the plant could be 15-20 or more feet lower than what you see on top, embedded in the soil. When the sand dune rolls on, it leaves the yucca to fall over without its support.