United States
Great Sand Dunes
The tallest dunes in North America rising against snow-streaked fourteen-thousand-foot peaks.
The first ridge rises off the valley floor like a mirage, a wall of golden sand backed by the snow-streaked summits of the Sangre de Cristos. Bare feet sink into sun-warmed grains while the wind redraws the slope above, and two landscapes with no business sharing a horizon meet head-on.
Great Sand Dunes holds the tallest dunes in North America, climbing some 750 feet above the San Luis Valley floor, the centrepiece of a landscape that runs from grassland and wetland up through forest to alpine lakes and tundra. The sand is the valley's own, blown east for hundreds of thousands of years until the mountain wall stopped it. In late spring, and only in years of good snowpack, Medano Creek spreads along the dune base and pulses in shallow waves that turn the sand into a beach with mountains attached. Sandboards slide the faces year-round, and after dark the certified dark sky over the dune field needs no telescope to astonish.
Family
In a good snow year, Medano Creek is late spring's natural splash pool, and the dunes themselves ask nothing more technical than enthusiasm and a sled.
Couple
Climb the first ridge for sunset, when the sand goes copper and the peaks violet, and stay while the certified dark sky switches on.
Friends
Race hired sandboards down the faces all afternoon, then drive into Alamosa for green chile and compare wipeouts.
- The dunes are North America's tallest, rising about 750 feet against the wall of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
- In late spring of good snowpack years, Medano Creek runs shallow waves along the dune base, a beach conjured out of snowmelt.
- Sandboarding and sledding are allowed on the open dune faces, with hire boards available on the approach road.
- The park holds International Dark Sky certification, and the dune field after moonset is one of the darkest places in Colorado.
San Luis Valley potatoes, seventy varieties from a high-altitude growing paradise, hashed and fried across Alamosa's diners.
Green chile, the valley's best-known staple, smothering breakfasts and burgers in the family-run kitchens nearby.
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