Our Experience at Great Sand Dunes National Park

By Jacob

Our second national park of July 2021 was Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. The park is located in the San Luis Valley at the base of the San De Cristo mountains. It is home to, as you could probably guess, a huge dune field including the tallest sand dune in North America. Driving towards the park you see the dunes for a long way. The San Luis Valley is perhaps, outside of eastern Colorado, the most boring part of the state. It took forever to drive across the valley. It felt like driving on a treadmill. It took over an hour from Saguache, Colorado where we entered the valley.

When we got to the park the first thing we did was pull over and stop at the park sign. There were several other visitors taking turns in front of the park sign with every possible pose and combination of family members. This took several minutes before they finally let us take our quick picture. We walked away and they continued their posing. To the north, across a field of tallgrass, the dunes rose dramatically. From miles away we could see tiny little dots of people climbing up the sand dunes. After driving through the entrance booth we parked at the visitor center, where I got the stamp for my national park passport. We decided that we would rent sand sleds at the nearby Great Sand Dunes Oasis, just outside the park. After waiting in a very slow moving line and picking up our sleds we drove back into the park. We followed the park road to the sand dunes and parked alongside the road. We even try to park in the parking lot. We started to walk towards the dunes, crossed the parking lot and passed several showers for people to wipe off the sand.

Walking through the trees and out was a striking scene. In front of us, across a flat beach of sand rose the massive sand dune with the highest dunes in north america. Around us was the shallow Medano Creek. The atmosphere was very beach-like. Families in bathing suites playing and splashing around in the creek, a strange site being over 600 miles from any ocean beach. We crossed the creek and began the long march to the sand dunes. The dunes were like a quarter mile walk from the parking lot through flat sand. Hiking sand drastically increases the time it takes to walk or do anything.

We arrived at the first hill and slowly made our way up the dune. The place where we rented out sand sleds told us that each time we had to wax up the bottom side each time we went down the hill. After a few attempts I was disappointed, each time I tried to go down I always fell. Dad was able to slide down without falling a couple of times. Looking around, very few people were trying to sled. They had them, but were not even trying. I was looking up at the tall sand dune, called the high dune, and saw people hiking up it. I decided I wanted to do that instead of falling on my face and getting sand in my mouth. Dad said he would just sit and relax so off I went to hike up the dunes.

As I said before, hiking sand dunes is much more difficult than normal hiking. Going up the first major dune was hard. I read that hiking along the spines of the dunes is significantly easier than hiking up just the sides. There is no set path to hike to the top of Star Dune, you have to just know where you are going and follow a logical path. As soon as I left the flat sand and started making my way up, the people were gone. I was alone in this area, except for a few hikers. Check out the Jacation Instagram highlight where I documented my climb to the top. The hike was quite a challenge. At one point, every one hundred steps I had to take a break. The hot sand sinks below your feet and the wind blows the sand all over. My shoes were filled with sand. Finally, I reach the top of the dune. It was a spectacular sight. I was no longer in Colorado, I had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was in the Sahara Desert. Except for the mountains, all I could see was the massive Dune Field 360 degrees all around. Even though the hike was hard and my shoes filled with sand, it was totally different.

Now comes the really fun part, going back down. I began hiking back across the spine and on the edge of an over 45 degree angle. I thought, what the heck, I started sliding down the steep dune. I had to barely lift my feet and I was sliding down the dune. It was exhilarating! Much more fun than using the sand sleds. I sled my way nearly 700 feet down back to the bottom and walked across the flat sand dune. Sand was everywhere. I spent several minutes at the showers cleaning my shoes and feet. That ended our time in Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

We really enjoyed our time in the park. I am glad we rented the sand sleds, but will not do it again. I hope to go back and do some of the mountain hikes as well as hiking to the Star Dune, the highest in North America.