The gypsum dunes at White Sands National Monument have a timeless quality, endlessly shifting and moving, an inspiring white expanse that quiets the mind and makes other vistas and landscapes seem annoyingly busy.

When Tom and I drove up, I was hit by a wave of nostalgia for our son, Nate.

On our recent tour of the Heart of the Desert Pistachio grounds and processing plant, we got up close and personal with the nuts and learned:

The first view I have of the City of Rocks immediately reminds me of the trip Tom and I took to Stonehenge in England. But man had no hand in the striking formations that rise out of the New Mexico desert.

This geological oddity is the result of volcanic ash spewed out 30 million years ago, piled up, buried and pressed into rock, then pushed back to the surface, where wind and water carved it into wild looking obelisks, teetering sculptures and mushroomlike stands.