Great Sands National Park

This was a real surprise.  After emerging from the mountain pass I found myself in high desert again.  The San Luis Valley.  This large desert plateau area is surrounded on the west, north and east my mountains, open to the south.  The prevailing southwest winds blow sand grains into the northwest corner at the foot of the Sangre de Christo mountains.  The sand grains are dropped into creeks of snowmelt.  The creeks carry the sand grains to the dunes where they deposited as "silt".  Finally the northwest winds coming down the mountains  carve the dunes into their wavy shape.  The dunes are over 700 ft high and cover more than 330 square miles. I think I understand this unusual event.  It is estimated that the dunes have been there for 12,000 years to over a million years.  The white stripes on the dune photo is snow.  The ant size figures on the dunes are people. The park is also a preserve. Tonight I can see the entire snow capped Sangre de Christo range from my hotel room.  This is my 21st and last national park.  What an experience!