Tag Archives: Great Sand Dunes National Park

The Bachelor Boys

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It is early fall at Great Sand Dunes National Park. The temperature is finally cooling down and the foliage is well on its way to completing it’s fall colors. The dunes are located down in southeastern Colorado and a few weeks ago you could have fried eggs on the rocks along the river bank. Actually the river that runs through the park and in front of the dunes is called Medano creek and is completely dry on the surface during late summer and fall. If you dig down a few inches though you’ll find damp sand any time of the year. In the spring it starts to flow again on the surface and you can easily wade across it without getting your pants wet.

It is surprising cold in the early morning at this time if year. I mean really cold. If you camp out you’ll want a pretty heavy sleeping bag and you’ll probably find frost on it when you wake up. That’s mainly due to the cold air flowing down from the snow-covered Sangre De Cristo mountains that border the dunes. By mid-morning though the heat starts to build up again but you’ll still need a light jacket.

These guys have already put on their winter wear and find the shade to be more comfortable than walking around out in the sunshine. They’re also conserving their strength as the rut hasn’t started yet. These are Mule deer and they grow considerable size antlers due to the mineral content they take in while they feed. It won’t be long before these friends will be battling each other for breeding rights and they won’t be hanging out together like this again until their antlers fall off in late winter. Right now they’re all buddies and will be until the blood starts rising in a few weeks.

This lush scene is located away from the dunes several hundred yards and isn’t the type of view you expect when you’re thinking about the 750′ tall sand dunes just across the river. The sand dunes are surrounded by snow-covered mountains and is exactly the type of habitat Mule deer live in so it isn’t unusual to find herds of mulies roaming all through the park. Right now these bachelor boys don’t have a lot to do and they’re making the most of it. This must be a great time of year to be mule deer.

If you want to see other posts that feature the dunes simply type sand dunes into the search box at the top of the page.

This Is Not Your Grandmother’s Sand

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You know how you’re sometimes paging through a magazine or looking at pictures on the net and you come across one that stops you in your tracks and you say “Ok, Now that’s pretty neat.” Well that’s the kind of views you get when you look around Great Sand Dunes National Park, especially at sunset.  That’s when you get that great light coming out of the west. The kind that turns the sand into molten gold and the mountains into an icy blue backdrop.

 This is not your grandmother’s sand. This isn’t litter box grey or the blinding white you get at your favorite beach. There are millions of colors trapped in these grains of sand just waiting for the light to release them, and release them it does. It just takes the right angle, the right intensity, the right time, and you to be there to witness them.

This was taken at the end of March at about 6 P.M. and although it was cold, as you can see by the snow still tucked in the valley there in the mountains, the light was fantastic. Because it was early Spring and fragments of Winter were still hanging on, there weren’t many people around to walk the dunes and leave their tracks across the unblemished faces of sand. Even if there had been the wind would have soon have re-sculpted the dunes faces, scouring them clean, erasing all signs that anyone had walked there. Tracks don’t last long on the dunes. This is not a place to permanently leave your mark. This is a place to view and etch the scene permanently into your memory or record it with your camera, or better yet both.

The Great Sand Dunes is a place where you can experience solitude, feel what it’s like to be out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the towering dunes, the blue mountains behind them, the wind blowing by. To see the last of the sunlight making the dunes fire up in all their blazing glory, a place where you can experience Nature at her best.  If you’re out here wandering around the Southwest stop by the Great Sand Dunes and be prepared  to be amazed.

Cold Day On Dark Sand

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GreatSandDunes0106Great Sand Dunes National Park   Colorado            click to enlarge

Images of deserts or sand dunes always seem to exude warmth. They give you the impression that it would be warm there no matter what time of year it was. You wouldn’t need a down jacket or gloves but that’s not so for the Great Sand Dunes, it can get really cold and surprisingly grey when the clouds roll out over Kit Carson mountain and cover the dune field.

The dunes vary in elevation with the average around 8000 +, at least near the visitor center, and Mendano creek flows during high water times in the spring and early summer. That depends on the snow melt so there are times when the creek is empty, especially in the winter. No tiene aqua entonces. So swimming is definitely out. The lowest temp ever recorded in the dunes was -25 below in 1963 and they ‘re still trying to thaw out the swimmers from that day.

Whether it’s cold or warm the dunes are always beautiful. If the sun can make it out the dunes show the golden hues you expect and sunset is the best time for the colors of the park to brighten up a grey cold day. If you plan to visit bring your snuggies and bunny slippers because the temperature will fool you and freeze your little hiney off if you’re not careful. And don’t go swimming.

Dunes

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If any of you have ever read any of Frank Herbert’s work you will remember Arrakis, the Dune planet. It was covered in sand so deeply that huge worms, the size of a train, could live and move freely in it like whales in the sea. Science fiction at it’s best, it won a Hugo award and many other accolades. Some truly horrible movies have been made of it that you should miss if you have any control over what goes into your head visually. Also it is why you should read the book itself, the pictures it makes in your mind are ever so much better. We have places here in the West that echo the setting in that novel but of course on a much smaller, but no less spectacular scale. The one most accessible to us is The Great Sand Dunes National park in Colorado.

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A huge expanse of towering sand piled up in truly epic proportions you can see how they might trigger your imagination, populating it with strange creatures and other-worldly adventures. The huge dunes create a wall that looms over you, soon blocking out all else, and you can begin to see where the idea for Herbert’s story began.

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During the mid-day light the dunes become almost featureless under the blazing sun and the color will fade until everything is a bleached white, but as soon as the sun moves down in the sky the colors begins it shift towards the red and the dunes start to come alive.

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At the end of day when the shadows stretch out and every grain of sand is outlined, the dunes are at their very best. The icy blue of the mountains behind create a stunning contrast to the hot colors of the sand. It is a breath taking sight and if the wind drops down and silence comes over the land you will feel like you have been transported to another place and time, even perhaps to another planet.