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Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. 

Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. 


And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune.

I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were seeing, and then waited. A nice college student on a geology class trip came up late into the sunrise and we struck up a conversation regarding travel.  He mentioned a place called Garden of the Gods. Before the darkness took over, I hiked the two mile downhill journey back to the campsite and crashed. 

Time-lapse sunset: 
http://youtu.be/sKzFzNanLME

Pics. 







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