Great Sand Dunes National Park

Our second attempt at visiting a sand dune national park was still full of blowing sand and stinging eyes, but the views were incredible and the dunes couldn't have looked any more different!

Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern-central Colorado protects the tallest sand dunes in North America. The park sits at the base of the mountains and looks like a big tan spot in the prairie as you're driving in. There are a lot of fun things to do in the park including dune sledding, hiking, camping, and amazing stargazing.

We hiked an off-dune trail for about 3 miles. We started on the Montville Nature Trail and connected to the Mosca Pass Trail about 1/4 of a mile down the trail. The Mosca Pass Trail is 3.5 miles one way and we did about half of it. If we had packed snacks and water and trekking poles, we would have done the entire trail. The trail exits the national park and enters a preserve in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It's a historic trail that was used frequently by native peoples and settlers to pass the mountains into the valleys. There was a sign at the trailhead about frequent visits by mountain lions so Adam tried really hard to see one (we didn't see any).

We did get an up close and personal encounter with deer at the picnic area. Because the wind was super strong and the sun shining bright, we stayed in the van to get some work done and relax a little. Madi was getting out of the van to walk around a little and she spotted a few deer 25 feet from the van. When she got back, the deer were less than 5 feet away and Adam was taking great pictures! Acadia was crying in the van - we're not sure if she wanted to play or if she was scared....

We braved the wind and sun for a little walk on the dunes. It was busier than White Sands National Park with people hiking to the tallest dune and sledding down the shorter dunes. Standing on the dunes was very different than seeing them from the parking lot or from the Mosca Pass Trail. They really are huge! The park has five dunes over 700 feet tall. That is a lot taller than the dunes in New Mexico. Both dune parks were amazing in their own unique way!

We didn't get a camping spot in the park because it was full all weekend, but we did get a FREE camping spot on some nearby Bureau of Land Management land. We left these magnificent dunes around dinner and stayed at the BLM land for two nights. The perk of having agencies that manage land for multi-use is that you can often find free dispersed camping for a maximum of 14 out of 28 days (no amenities though).

Check out our next post coming soon about driving our home through the Rockies.