A Quick Visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park

We, like I expect many others, are often driving near a National Park, like Great Sand Dunes, and decide to do a quick visit even if we don’t have time to see everything the park has to offer. Small parks are perfect for this type of visit and we have had some memorable and quick visits to Indiana Dunes, White Sands, Congaree, Badlands, Petrified Forest, and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks. Not everything has as much to see as one of the marquee parks like a Yellowstone, Death Valley, Big Bend, or Yosemite! I’d be quick to point out that this doesn’t diminish the special nature of a small park as it is often focused on a particular sight.

This is true of Great Sand Dunes, at least for the typical visitor. The vast majority of visitors, ourselves included, are here a fairly short time and to see the obvious star of the park – the dunes! When they first appear on the horizon as you approach the park it is hard to take your eyes off of them. They are simply huge! Words can’t describe what a 750 foot tall sand dune looks like and the closer you get the more you realize just how tall they are.

So what should you plan to do while you are at Great Sand Dunes? Turns out that is a silly question because you will want to climb the dunes of course! Yes, you can climb to the top of the dunes. Yes, you can rent or bring sleds and sled down the dunes. Yes, you can tie your shirt around your head and walk through them like Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Family Vacation. Er, wait, was it his pants? Either way, getting out of the car and into the dune field is *the* thing to do in this park.

Hiking in the Dunes

First things first – there are zero, zip, nada established trails in the dunefield. Unlike White Sands, which has nice signs to keep you on a trail of sorts, Great Sand Dunes is a choose your own adventure and thankfully you can keep your bearings pretty well as you hike. Trust me – you won’t hike as far into the dunes as you think as it is hard work! If your visit is in the summer you also get to experience the feeling of burning hot sand and that is sure fun! But, get out there and pick a goal to get to. Bring some water and head on out!

There are a total of 5 dunes that exceed 700 feet and that doesn’t include the high one you see and is the most popular to hike to (it is close at 699 feet!). Plan a few hours (the park service suggests up to 4) to hike to the High Dune and it is 2.5 miles round trip. Yes, you can hike to the highest dune in the park – Star Dune – but it takes a good 6-9 hours and is 8 miles roundtrip.

Sledding

We didn’t sled (we live in Minnesota, so sledding on sand may be different but we get a lot of opportunity to sled in the winter!) but you can rent sleds or bring your own and we saw a lot of people having a blast doing so! One thing that distinguishes Great Sand Dunes from White Sands is that in White Sands you can drive your vehicle right up to the dunes whereas in Great Sand Dunes you have to cross about 1/2 mile of (hot!) sand before you start climbing. Regardless, sledding on dunes is a unique thing to do.

The Rest of the Park

There are other activities in the Park that we will visit if we are back in the area. There are both short and long hikes into the mountains on the east side of the park road including the Mosca Pass Trail that is about 7 miles roundtrip but can also be accessed from a road that originates east of the mountains and dead ends where the trail finishes. The short Montville Nature Trail also gives some relief from the heat of the sun on the dunes.

If we had a good 4 wheel drive vehicle that was suited for more rigorous off-roading, I would love to drive the Medano Pass Primitive Road into the National Preserve as the alpine hike to Medano Lake and Mount Herard would be amazing! Hiking to Upper or Lower Sand Creek Lake or summiting Milwaukee Peak in the far north part of the park would also be neat to see. Sometimes you need a reason to go back and honestly writing about these parts of the park gives me the itch to head back to southern Colorado and see these parts of the park for myself!

Nearby – Zapata Falls

With a reservation for a hotel in Kansas that night and a pup to get home to the next day we missed one other hike that I’d like to do next time we are in this area. Zapata Falls is a popular and short hike on federal land 8 miles south of the visitor center off Highway 150. There is some signage on the highway and I understand the dirt road to the trailhead is a 3.5 mile rough dirt road. The hike is just 1/2 mile.

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