Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

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After a quick breakfast, I drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve which is nestled against the rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The dunes are huge and are North America's tallest. 

I spent about three hours in the park slogging and hiking in the sand across the dunes trying to reach the highest dune in the park (at least as far as I could tell). I thought I had achieved that remarkable feat of scaling heretofore unknown heights until I got to the visitor center afterwards and the park volunteer politely but firmly informed me that it was impossible for me to have hiked to the second highest dune, Star Dune (755 ft), and that I must have only hiked to the top of High Dune (699 ft). The difference between the two dunes is only 56 feet, so I was still suitably impressed with myself. Third place ain't too bad. Indeed, I was so high up that the people down below looked like specks on the sand. 

It was pretty cool to be that high up, and coming down was much faster than going up. On the way down, I passed hundreds of kids who were sledding down the dunes on special sleds (snow sleds don't work), as if they were sledding down a snowy mountain slope, and then slogging back up the dune to do it all over again. Oh to be a kid again!



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