Shadow Dance – Colorado

Shadow Dance – Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Warm evening light and cool shadows dance across swells of sand in the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  The park encompasses about 150,000 acres of dunes and adjacent forest in a west facing alcove of Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  Prevailing winds blow across the arid San Luis Valley, creating dunes as sand collects at the foot of the mountains.  The tallest dunes in North America, they rise over 700 feet above the valley floor, providing a playground for over 250,000 visitors a year. The area was designated a national monument in 1932 and then elevated in 2000 to national park status, making it one of our newest national parks.