Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
The park is located in southern Colorado, 35 miles northeast of Alamosa, Colorado
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a unique mixture of terrain making for plenty to do on your next family outdoor adventure vacation. Not only will you find some of the highest sand dunes in North America, but you will also experience some of the most spectacular wilderness scenery with an unusual ecosystem. There’s camping, backpacking, hiking, boating, fishing, snowshoeing and much more. Check below for lots of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve information.
Uniqueness
Great Sand Dunes is a treasure of visual, geological, and biological surprises—a high mountain valley holding one of the most fragile and complex dune systems in the world and flanked by some of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains; unique wind-powered geologic systems; insects physically adapted to life in the sand and found nowhere else; alpine lakes and tundra; disappearing creeks; interdunal wetlands and much more. Great Sand Dunes features a diversity of resources and something of interest for all ages, making for a great family vacation choice. It also contains some of the oldest (9,000+ years before present) known archeological sites in America. The dunes have been identified as having special importance by people of various cultures, and the area is recognized for the culturally diverse nature of human use.
Nestled in southern Colorado, North America’s tallest dunes rise over 750 feet high against the rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The wind-shaped dunes glow beneath the rugged backdrop of the mountains. This geologic wonderland, containing over 30 square miles of massive dunes, became a national monument in 1932. With the passage of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act, resources now also include alpine lakes and tundra, six peaks over 13,000′ in elevation, ancient spruce and pine forests, large stands of aspen and cottonwood, grasslands, and wetlands–all habitat for diverse wildlife and plant species.
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