Hey hey USA - 5th November - Great Sand Dunes National Park

 


We were driving north through Colorado towards Denver to catch our plane back to the UK and had stopped in Alamosa the previous night so that we could visit Great Sand Dunes the following day. 
It was a great decision. These sand dunes, although they lack the whiteness of the dunes in New Mexico, make up for it in spades by the relative wildness of their situation. The park is not so ordered and neat as the White Dunes but feels a lot more natural.
As we drove through the San Luis Valley towards the dunes they gradually emerged from the base of the mountains. These are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a southerly extension of the Rockies which run down along the eastern side of the Rio Grande rift all the way to to Santa Fé in New Mexico. The dunes are the highest in North America and are nowhere near the sea. The Saint Luis Valley once held a number of lakes which receded around 440,000 years ago, leaving behind large sand sheets. The winds in the valley blew the sand into a cleft in the mountains forming the dunes. Now the wind is still dominantly into the mountains but during storms the wind blows the sand back towards the valley, the net result being that the dunes become higher and the tallest now stands at 226 metres. Mountain streams capture sand from the mountain side of the dune field and bring it down to the valley floor from where it is blown back against the mountains again. The largest dunes are static but the smaller ones are constantly changing shape and moving.
We parked up and walked towards the dunes. We were quite early and there was hardly anyone about but it got busier as time went on. We saw the remains of a stream which had disappeared in the autumn drought but ice crystals of water were on the stream bed. It was very cold but we soon heated up as we started to climb the dunes. This was not easy as the sand shifts under your feet as you move and it is difficult to make headway. Also we were still rather Covid compromised. We did make it to a good elevation although overtaken by most of the other arrivals. It is an adventure playground and some people were endeavouring to snow board down the slopes. 
We eventually made our way to where the dunes were quieter and the clouds cleared and the sun came out.




The dried up stream bed



















When we had got back to the car park we drove along a track at the edge of the dunes to get a new perspective.


And, even driving away we couldn't resist stopping the car to look back at the spectacle.









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