I had a few free days and the weather was cold and wet in the mountains close to home, so I took the opportunity to check out Great Sand Dunes National park in southern Colorado. A sandbox of epic proportions, this national park encompasses 30 square miles and the tallest dunes are 750 feet high. There are no established trails in the dunes since wind would just obliterate them within minutes, but there are a few named "summits" that are worthy objectives. These include High Dune (2.5 miles round trip, 693 feet off the valley floor, the most accessible and visible from the main parking lot), Hidden Dune (7 miles round trip, 741 feet off the valley floor), and Star Dune (6 miles round trip, 741 feet off the valley floor). Hidden Dune and Star Dune are tied for the tallest dune in North America.

I arrived in the early afternoon, and hiked up to the top of High Dune, by crossing Medano Creek bed and then zigzaging up sandy ridgelines to the top. The summit provided great views of the entire dunefield. It was quite windy (~60 mph). I probably ingested a few spoonfuls of sand. The round trip hike took a littles less than two hours. There is no trail, as the wind just would blow it away.

After camping in the BLM land for the night, the following morning I climbed to the top of Star Dune. I accessed it by hiking about 2 miles south down the Medano Creek bed until the massive pyramid-shaped Star Dune came into view; from there I followed a ridge to its summit. I descended a more direct way for a nice loop over the summit. The round trip hike took a little less than 4 hours. It was much less windy than the previous day and I had completely clear skies, making for an enjoyable and beautiful ascent.

While there was quite a bit of people around the Dunes parking lot and on the lower slopes of High Dune, I quickly found solitude as I hiked away from the parking lot area. In fact, I was completely alone on my entire Star Dune hike, and encountered only a few other lone hikers on my High Dune hike. It was nice to have such a unique area to myself.

Below is a map and sampling of photos from my two days of summiting sand dunes.

Highest in elevation—but not tallest—dune in the dunefield, at elevation 8,727 and 693 foot tall.

~2 miles, <2 hours round trip from parking lot
May 30, 2022

Tallest—but not highest in elevation—dune in the dunefield, at elevation 8,617 and 741 foot tall

~6 miles, <4 hours round trip from parking lot
May 31, 2022