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| The Great Sand Dunes National Park Entrance Sign |
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The Great Sand Dunes National Park Entrance:
Tucked away in Southern Colorado is the Great Sand Dunes National Park. According to the National Park Service, "The tallest dunes in North America are the centerpiece in a diverse landscape of grasslands, wetlands, conifer and aspen forests, alpine lakes, and tundra. Experience this diversity through hiking, sand sledding, splashing in Medano Creek, wildlife watching, and more! The park and preserve are open 24 hours a day, so plan to also experience night skies and nocturnal wildlife during your visit."
A link to their webpage can be found here.
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| View Prior to Entering Park |
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The Overall View:
Approaching the dunes, make sure you take the opportunity to catch a glimpse of, and appreciate, the full scale of the park from the outside as once you get in it, your perspective is easily swallowed up by the massive sandy dunes, surrounding mountains and the cold flowing Medano Creek.
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| Deer grazing inside the Great Sand Dunes National Park |
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The Wildlife:
The main wildlife you are more than likely to encounter are the deer. Make sure you abide by the posted speed limits and keep your head on a swivel as they are very often grazing along the roads. The deer pictured above was well aware I was there, as were the other deer, and could,seemingly, care less. They are not very camera shy. This image was taken at about 25 yards. I, later, got within 10 yards and they seemed barely alarmed. With that being said, keep a safe distance from them both for your sake and theirs.
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| Finally: Leave a Trace, it's ok! |
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| No Signs of Previous Foot Traffic |
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The Sand
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| Evening view across Medano Creek |
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Medano Creek
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| Tent in the Sand Dune Sunset |
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Night Approaches
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| Starlight, Star Bright... |
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| Light Pollution in the Background |
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Night Arrives:
The main reason I drove down to the park has arrived; the night's sky! By looking at various light pollution maps, I expected to come to the Dunes and have very close to pure dark skies. I was quite disappointed in that the surrounding areas had a lot more residences than I expected which lit the horizons up quite a bit. As long as you were taking photos without the horizon in them, you were ok in the areas concerning light pollution. As seen above, any image with the horizon in it contained some light pollution; though minimal.
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