Dead wood in the desert

[Roland]

During my trip to the White Sands National Park in New Mexico, I spotted this piece. Would have been a nice piece for the garden.

• ILCE-7RM5
• Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70 mm F4 ZA OSS (SEL2470Z)
• 64.0 mm
• ƒ/18
• 1/640 sec
• ISO 640

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Wow, looks like a giant piece of rope, the way it has multiple strands going through it. Nature is pretty cool.

 

[iain clyne]

Wow, looks like a giant piece of rope, the way it has multiple strands going through it. Nature is pretty cool.

That’s what I thought when I saw it, a rope that is untangling.

 

[Ralph]

What you see in today's world which is one good thing is that some smarty pant would put this is a container and pour that acrylic around it and maybe turn it into the leg of a table or something.
Great job on this shot, as it is so different to what I would normally like.

 

[Roland]

Thanks for the comments.
I tried to find out, what tree it is. The only tree that grows at White Sands is the Rio Grande Cottonwood. The tree does not look like that. After doing some research, I believe I found the answer. Those are the exposed tree roots of a long gone Cottonwood. The water table is very shallow in this desert and ever present wind shifts the sand, which is actually gypsum, constantly.