Great Sand Dunes

The Great Sand Dunes
I was really excited about finally getting to this National Park this past fall. Once you get past the visitor center, you have to drive a short distance to the main central access area to the dunes. There is about a 100 yard or so walk through the flat sand before you start climbing the dunes. Climbing up sand dunes isn't a piece of cake. It's long and tedious. This was atop one of the dunes just before the wind picked up and started pelting us pretty good. I quickly tucked my camera under my shirt to protect the lens and hoping to also protect the body of the camera.
The Dunes themselves are quite beautiful. We caught the park in the late afternoon and stayed for about two hours. I would have like to stayed till sunset but we had to keep motoring down the road. I would love to go back sometime.
Great Sand Dunes, Southern Colorado
Canon 6d, 16-35L, Hand Held, post done in Lightroom with nik collection.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2hMH​gYS

The tallest sand dune in Europe just south of Bordeaux

Grande Dune du Pilat standing 107m high, 350 feet.

So odd to see a sand dune in the midst of a forest. Sand dunes typically drift with the winds but I imagine being entrapped by the forest it cannot move???

Very interesting.

It does look strange Doug, but instead of being trapped by those trees it is slowly moving and burying them. And not just trees. Good old Wiki has some very interesting bits on it.

It was a hell of a climb up those steps and when we visited we had to wait about 10 minutes or so while a JCB digger cleared some of the sand form the access to them! People even paraglide from it.

https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/Dune_of_Pilat

If you haven't trekked across the Dunes in Death Valley by this time of year, it's already too hot