The setting sun blesses the crests of the dune field with rich, warm light in the shadows of the west escarpment of Medano Peak (middle distance), and the Crestone Peaks (far distance), Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. At larger sizes, patches of bright yellow aspen can be discerned in the growing twilight. Medano Peak is actually the original name of what is currently referred to as Mount Herard (13,345 ft, 4068 m), but the mountain has only worn that moniker for 32 years. Apparently a white guy with the surname of Herard claimed land near the foot of the mountain in 1876, and notwithstanding this fact, it’s unclear to me why we should change a mountain’s name from what everyone knows it to be. Denali is case in point.
In the foreground, Star Dune forms the highest point in the dune field, and rises to a height of 750 ft. (230 m) above the floor of the San Luis Valley. At this height, Star Dune is the tallest dune in the United States. The dune field is almost half a million years old, and formed from sand and silt deposits from a vast glacier-fed lake that once existed not far to the west. The strong winter winds out of the west have worked on those ancient lake sediment deposits for a good long time now, and the process continues to the present day. As mineral-rich gusty air out of the west collides with the western flank of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east, sand continues to drop out in the eddies as the dunes imperceptibly grow ever higher.
Explored 2016-10-21
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