Great Sand Dunes National Park Activities

Introduction.

Great Sand Dunes National Park is located in south central Colorado. The park is not only home to the tallest sand dunes in North America, but also contains the seasonal Medano Creek, Medano Pass - an off-road and back country area, and is in close proximity to Zapata Falls. The dunes cover about 30 square miles, with the base sitting at an elevation of approximately 7,500 feet.  The two tallest dunes reach elevations of 700 and 750 feet respectively.

Great Sand Dunes officially became a National Park in 2004 and on average receives about 500,000 visitors per year.  Activities available to visitors include hiking, campground camping, sand boarding/sledding, stargazing, back country camping, and horseback riding.

General logistics information.

The main entry point into the park for the dunes area is in Mosca, Colorado, about 30 miles northeast of Alamosa, Colorado. The park is officially opened 24 hours a day, all year long. There is no lodging inside the park nor are there any food options, however there is a general store, with restaurant and rentals for sand boards or sand sleds called the Oasis, approximately 1 mile from the entrance to the park. Just up the hill from the Oasis, is the Great Sand Dunes Lodge, which has a limited number of hotel rooms and an RV campsite. Inside the park, there is an excellent campground at Pinon Flats, though reservations are highly recommended, as this is a very popular camping area.

Based on our desire to visit this very unusual National Park, we chose to stay at the Great Sand Dunes Lodge. It turned out to be much nicer than anticipated and provided great views of the dunes, right from your hotel room. They also offer free continental breakfast, have a heated pool, and provide guests access to gas grills for cooking out.

In this post I will review the highlights of our visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park and share some of my images of our Great Sand Dunes Activities.

Great Sand Dunes Activities.

• As always, our first stop was the Visitor’s Center. We checked out the gift shop, got questions answered from the rangers, reviewed our planned Great Sand Dunes Activities, and learned more about the park.
• Viewing the 20 minute movie about the park and its history is highly recommended.

• Since we arrived mid-afternoon, we headed to the approach for High Dune, just to get our bearings. High Dune is not the tallest dune in the park, though it was the dune we decided we would be climbing, due to other activities we had planned, and in consideration of our personal fitness.

• The other reason for our initial visit to the dune area, was to scope out one of our Great Sand Dunes Activities, that being observing the incredible night skies.

• Great Sand Dunes National Park is one of the 26 National Parks designated as Dark Sky Parks, by the International Dark-Sky Association.

• Some "intended to be" friendly advice.
• If you are planning to go out for some stargazing as one of your Great Sand Dunes Activities, please make the effort to bring along a red light flashlight.
• During our night adventures, there were a number of people that carried white light flashlights. These white light flashlights not only negatively effects your own night vision, it is very disturbing to anyone attempting to photograph the night skies. Please be considerate.

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• Our next morning started with a view of the dunes and the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the background. Just some additional inspiration for the first of our planned Great Sand Dunes Activities, climbing High Dune.



• We arrived at the dunes parking area early (as recommended) and began our trek towards High Dune. The small dark dots in the image are other dune climbers.

• The climb of High Dune is challenging, and each time you seem to complete the climb of the dune at hand, you descend into a sand valley, and then begin the climb of the next portion of the dune.

• The climax of this most important, of our planned Great Sand Dunes Activities, was reaching the apex of High Dune.



• This gave us some time to rest, to take in the 360 degree views, to refuel with some snacks, and to enjoy our physical accomplishment of completing the climb.

• What I can reveal is that the descent from High Dune is a much easier trek, and provides better opportunities for enjoying the views, and even some playing in the sand.



• The next of our Great Sand Dunes Activities was hiking the Overlook Trail.

• This is a 2.3 mile round trip hike, and provides you with some different views of the dunes, the Sangre de Cristo mountains, and even gives you a glimpse of the "Escape Dunes".

• Although Great Sand Dunes National Park in far removed from most of the well known attractions in Colorado, the remoteness, the beauty of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the incredible night skies, and the enjoyment and challenge of hiking the dunes exceeded our expectations.