Two posts in one day! After leaving Mesa Verde, we headed east towards Great Sand Dunes National Park. There we found 700' tall dunes (the tallest in North America) but no cell service to update the blog. Great Sand Dunes is a newer national park, which protects the dunes and surrounding ecosystem. Very little of the park has trails, however the dunes can be explored at will by the public. In spring and early summer, the creeks surrounding the dunes become a family destination to play in the sand and water, snowboard or sled down the dunes, or roll down the hills of sand. In late August, the creek has dried up, but the dunes remain. The main hike I did was to the top of High Dune, approximately 650' above the creek bed. It was extremely windy, sandblasting my legs, and also challenging to climb in the loose sand and high elevations. One day later, we were headed up back towards Denver!
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| The dry creek bed, dunes, and mountains. |
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| Hiking in the dunes. |
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| Headed up. |
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| Blowing sand... |
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| Wind ripples in the sand. |
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| Getting closer to the top - even windier. |
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| The top of High Dune. |
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| Wet sand can be found just below the surface or exposed by wind. |
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| Storms rolling over the mountains. |
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| Sunset. |
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