When Abbie + Juan Pablo found out I was traveling to White Sands National Park, they decided that it would be a perfect place for their couples pictures, and to make a fun little trip out of it. We planned for a sunrise photoshoot, and headed to the park at 5:30 AM to catch the 6 AM sunrise.

Pulling into the park, we were all amazed at the landscape. The gypsum sand was unlike anything we had ever seen before, and the miles of dunes looked like never-ending mounds of fluffy white snow. Even better, because it was a beautiful 75 degree morning, and the sand was cool to the touch, but comfortable on our bare feet (I grew up in Wisconsin, and even after all these years in it, I am not the biggest fan of the cold snowy months!)

Marveling at how unique this place was, standing in the pure white desert, Abbie + Juan Pablo adventured out along marked trails. They explored the landscape, tried to find as many white lizards as possible that blended into the sand, and we took beautiful couples photos along the way. The sunrise created a warm, soft light for their photoshoot, and the morning got even sweeter when Abbie pulled out the sonogram, and surprised me by sharing that this was also a photoshoot for their pregnancy announcement!

After about an hour into the sunrise staying near the car, we set out on a 5 mile dune trail– hiking barefoot around the park. If it weren’t for the bright trail markers, we would have been completely lost immersed in this landscape. White Sands National Park is truly one of the most unique places I have ever seen, and it made for one of my favorite adventurous couples photoshoots to date!