May 2019

The Great Sand Dunes National Park contains North America’s tallest dunes, at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The dunes were formed by sand and sediment blown from a huge lake once covering the valley floor. The tallest of the dunes, Star Dune, is about 755′ tall but as you enter the park and approach the dunes they seem small, dwarfed against the 13,000′ snow capped peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Once you get a bit closer you realize just how huge and sprawling they really are.

We drove to the Dunes parking lot to explore the dunes up close. Luckily we were able to see Medano Creek flowing, which only happens this time of year, fed by the spring mountain snowmelt. In order to climb the dunes you needed to cross the creek. Since we were not really prepared to do that we decided to stay on the dry side. We saw people with sandboards, heading to and from the dunes, and even one little girl playing with an inner tube in the creek. Brrrrr! I was bundled up in sweat pants and a hoodie!

After leaving the Dunes parking lot we headed further into the park to the Pinyon Flats Campground (primitive) and then up to the Medano Pass Primitive Road. We thought we would be able to drive on this road with the CRV but pretty quickly came upon some water across the road and decided to turn around.

 

We did get an amazing view of the dunes and Medano Creek from up there.

 

It was interesting to see these huge dunes in such an unlikely setting. This National Park is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.