When we visited this park back in 2010 for the first time in the middle of June, it was a low snow year and the creek that is at the base of the Great Sand Dunes was dry.

This go around, the creek was wide and flowing. Interestingly most of the creek is 1-inch depth or less, but very wide (couple hundred feet in spots) as it passes over the wide flat sand area. Even more interesting is the surges in the flow that take it to 2-inches in spots, and then these waves form on the surface. It is amazing to see and hear.

Needless to say I played around with many comps and shutter speeds on these waves and action of the water there in the creek.

Having all this with the 800 foot tall sand dunes and the 13,000 elevation plus peaks of the mountains beyond is very cool to take in.

Here the capture was taken later in the afternoon on a cloudy sunset with the west end of the dune field in the view. The ripples and waves on the water was very cool ... and COLD too. Put those hiking water shoes to use quite a bit here that I normally use for streams and waterfalls. It was easy to wash all the sand out later too :)

Tags:   Great Sand Dunes National Park Medano Creek Colorado

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For the first night at the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado the skies were pretty cloudy, but for a few moments there was some glow in the sky. Here I had zoomed in on the dunes to capture the couple people there in the frame too ... they can be seen at the very top of the tallest dunes there (those dunes are around 800 feet all from the base, and are around elevation 8,000 feet above sea level).

Once you see them you can get a real sense of scale here.

There are also several people down lower in the frame along the tops of the lower dunes, and they are carrying boards for sand-boarding down the dunes.

Tags:   Great Sand Dunes National Park Colorado

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On the second night at Great Sand Dunes was treated to a really colorful sunset. It was amazing in all directions. Once I snapped off a ton of compositions in many of those directions, I then proceeded to take 10 images rotating the tripod at 1/10 second to create a 270 degree field of view allowing you take in the colors from into the sun to those that were lighting up the peaks. This is the stitch of those ten images, and then cropped down to 1/3 sky and 2/3 Medano Creek. When I took the capture I split the horizon, figuring I would end up with another wide view 2/3 sky and 1/3 dunes and mountains. Both are pretty cool to see.

Actually the wide split at 50/50 at the horizon looks pretty nice too given the extreme wide angle.

Any case, here is the first version of the view there under the wild sunset.

Tags:   Great Sand Dunes National Park

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The wide and shallow Medano Creek as it passes by the Great Sand Dunes in southern central Colorado.

Tags:   Medano Creek Great Sand Dunes National Park Colorado

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A view across the surging Medano Creek looking back at the mountains that line Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Tags:   Great Sand Dunes National Park Colorado

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