Great Sand Dunes National Park: Gaze at the stars or sled the dunes

By:
Nov. 6, 2020
Great Sand Dunes is beautiful in all seasons, including winter when snow falls on the dunes about once a week.
Snow falls at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve about once a week during the winter, creating a beautiful spot for sledding. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

The tallest sand dunes in North America billow up against snow-capped, 14,000-foot peaks like a giant, wayward beach that accidentally crashed ashore in the Colorado mountains.

Nature seems to be having fun at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, and so, too, do visitors who revel in unique delights during every season of the year.

Along with its giant dunes, the park is famous for sandhill cranes that return to Great Sand Dunes and the sprawling San Luis Valley in both the spring and fall. Majestic, giant and prehistoric-looking, the cranes seem to offer lessons about love and loyalty.

“Cranes mate for life, but each spring they renew their bonds through a courtship ritual that includes dancing, bowing, chortling, and throwing tufts of grass in the air,” says Patrick Myers, who has been a ranger at Great Sand Dunes for 27 years.

“They provide some good advice for people: keep the romance alive,” Myers said with a grin.

Sandhill cranes fly over Crestone Peaks near Great Sand Dunes National Park
Sandhill cranes have returned to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve and the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service/Patrick Myers.

In addition to sharing insights about the remarkable biodiversity, history and recreational activities at Great Sand Dunes – including splashing in Medano Creek in late spring and early summer, sand-sledding and boarding in summer and fall and snow-sledding when powder covers the dunes in winter – Myers loves photographing the park’s beauty in every season.

Below are his tips for enjoying Great Sand Dunes throughout the year. And, to snap great photos, Myers advises visitors to spend time in the park during sunrise and sunset, when the light is most beautiful.

Great Sand Dunes National Park is great during all seasons. Here the dunes are in the foreground with snowy peaks in the background.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve features the tallest dunes in North America. The Great Sand Dunes can be enjoyed every season. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

The Great Sand Dunes every season

Winter: Cranes return to the Grand San Dunes National Park

Serenity is plentiful during the winter, so visitors have a better chance of seeing wildlife like elk and pronghorn, members of the antelope family. Beginning in February, the sandhill cranes return to the valley. And, if you time your visit right, you might get to see the cranes and enjoy the unique experience of sledding or snowboarding down snow-covered dunes. (For sledding on snow at Great Sand Dunes, regular snow sleds work. If you want to sled or board when the sand is dry, you’ll need different, special sleds or snowboards.)

Click here to see a video that shows Great Sand Dunes in the winter. (Or view the video below.)

Great Sand Dunes is cold during the winter, so if you plan to visit soon, remember to bundle up. About once a week, snow falls on the dunes and people can enjoy sledding. Trails up in the mountains are inaccessible during the winter. The Medano Pass Road, a route only for 4-wheel-drive vehicles during the summer and fall is closed in winter beyond the Castle Creek Picnic Area, but the part of the road that is closed during the winter can be a good place to snowshoe or hike if the snow is tamped down.

The cranes spend the coldest months in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, then they typically begin to return to the San Luis Valley and Great Sand Dunes in early February,

Spring: Enjoy the beach and waves in the fresh mountain air

Sandhill cranes do a dancing ritual in the spring.
Sandhill cranes return to the area around Great Sand Dunes every spring and fall. In the spring, they renew their bonds with a dancing ritual. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

Spring officially arrives in late March, but March is also the snowiest month at Great Sand Dunes, so keep the parkas, hats, gloves and warm boots handy. The sandhill cranes typically stay and feed in the valley and remote parts of Great Sand Dunes through late March, then return in the fall.

Aside from the cranes, Great Sand Dunes’ star of spring is Medano Creek. Fed by melting snow high in the mountains, the creek flows in spring and early summer and brings waves and rippling sand sculptures to the base of the dunes.

“That’s the most classic time of year to come to Great Sand Dunes. We have the beach and the waves. The mountains are still snow-capped. It’s such a fresh time of year,” Myers said.

In the spring, Medano Creek flows in the sand and makes for a perfect Colorado beach.
In the spring, water flows in Medano Creek at the base of the Great Sand Dunes, creating a Colorado beach with 14-ers for a backdrop. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

When the creek is flowing at its highest levels, the water spreads out across the base of the dunes into a wide, welcoming stream with waves up to 20 inches deep.  The water beckons people of all ages who enjoy traipsing through soft, wet sand in bare feet. Catch the park on a perfect sunny day in late May or early June, and you’ll see toddlers with sand toys plopped down in an inch or two of warm water, while older kids and adults enjoy easy tubing down Medano’s gentle waves.

Click here to see a video about Medano Creek. (Or view it below.)

The fun and beauty of this natural beach, not surprisingly, draw the biggest crowds of the year.

“Everybody wants to come during that three-week window,” Myers said. “On weekends, the lines at the entrance station can stretch up to three miles long.”

An avocet bird with chicks reflected in shallow water.
An American avocet with her chicks. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

While playing in Medano Creek when it’s flowing is a blast, Myers encourages visitors to discover Great Sand Dunes during other seasons.

Summer: Time to get an early start

From mid-June until late July,  when the water level in Medano Creek gets low and the temperatures rise, the mosquitoes come out in force. Fortunately, the mosquitoes are not attracted to the dry dunes, so people who want to climb up dunes or sled or sandboard down can still enjoy the dunes during the summer.

The big challenge, however, is afternoon heat.

“Summer air temperatures are pleasant at this high elevation, but during the afternoon hours, the sand surface can reach 150 degrees, and dangerous thunderstorms can develop,” Myers said.

A girl "sandboards" at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
When the sand is dry, visitors to Great Sand Dunes Park and Preserve can enjoy sledding and boarding down the dunes with special equipment. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

He advises explorers to head out early. That advice holds true for hikes to alpine lakes as well. Lightning is the danger at high elevations in the Colorado Rockies. The rule of thumb in Colorado for anyone hiking to higher elevation is to get up and down from areas above timberline before noon.

Two popular lake hikes at Great Sand Dunes include the trails to Medano Lake and Sand Creek Lake. (Click here to learn more about hiking and backpacking at Great Sand Dunes.)

Aside from those trails, Great Sand Dunes is different from other national parks, where hikers need to stay on designated trails. There are not trails on the dunes and as long as hikers are careful about not harming plants, they are free to chart their own path to the summits of 13,000-foot-peaks.

A man jumps off Star Dune at sunset.
A man jumps of Star Dune at sunset. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

“This is more of a wilderness park,” Myers said.

He also said the park is one of the most biologically diverse national parks in North America.

“A place like Rocky Mountain National Park has tundra and forest. Here, it’s southwestern desert meets wetlands meets the Rockies. That means we have incredible diversity of animal and plant species,” Myers said.

Fall: Enjoy beautiful colors

In the fall, serenity returns and so, too, do the sandhill cranes. They generally return to Colorado from their summer breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska and spend time in the San Luis Valley before returning to their winter habitat in New Mexico.

Visitors often can see them in wetlands and fields outside the park from late September through mid-November. (Click here to learn where to see the cranes.)

Medano Creek during the fall.
Fall colors along Medano Creek. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

Along with great birding and hiking, fall offers beautiful colors as the aspens and the cottonwoods turn gold.

And, during every season of the year, visitors can enjoy a very unique aspect of Great Sand Dunes: its dark skies that make stargazing a popular activity.

“With a combination of dry air, little light pollution and high elevation, Great Sand Dunes Park and Preserve is an excellent and easily accessible dark sky viewing location,” Myers said.

Great Sand Dunes is now an official International Dark Sky Park.

Milky way over Great Sand Dunes National Park at night
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a great place for stargazing. Here, the Milky Way is visible over the dunes with snowy peaks in the distance. Photo courtesy of NPS/Patrick Myers.

Getting certified took years of effort. Advocates in the park worked with neighbors to minimize light pollution.

Visitors can join in by reducing their use of lights. And, kids who participate in the Junior Ranger Program, can become official “night explorers.” On nights with full moons, people can explore the dunes without headlamps or flashlights.

Myers said exploring Great Sand Dunes after dark can be a magical experience.

“Feel the soft night breezes. Listen to the call of the owls, the howling of the distant coyotes, the calls of frogs and toads, the rustle of creatures in the forest and the drum of kangaroo rats thumping warnings to each other,” he said. “You may notice that your senses grow sharper as you spend more time in dark and quiet locations.”

Hiking Ready. Set. CO To do in Colorado Video Winter activities

About the author

Katie Kerwin McCrimmon is a proud Colorado native. She attended Colorado College, thanks to a merit scholarship from the Boettcher Foundation, and worked as a park ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park during summer breaks from college. She is also a storyteller. She loves getting to know UCHealth patients and providers and sharing their inspiring stories.

Katie spent years working as a journalist at the Rocky Mountain News and was a finalist with a team of reporters for the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of a deadly wildfire in Glenwood Springs in 1994. Katie was the first reporter in the U.S. to track down and interview survivors of the tragic blaze, which left 14 firefighters dead.

She covered an array of beats over the years, including the environment, politics, education and criminal justice. She also loved covering stories in Congress and at the U.S. Supreme Court during a stint as the Rocky’s reporter in Washington, D.C.

Katie then worked as a reporter for an online health news site before joining the UCHealth team in 2017.

Katie and her husband Cyrus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, have three children. The family loves traveling together anywhere from Glacier National Park to Cuba.