Well, this is one of those places which might not be high on one's list to visit but once you see it it is truly a natural marvel!! Got up this morning at Valleyview and drove the 50 miles down the center of San Luis Valley and headed back up to the foothills of the Sangre de Cristos mountain range where the park sits. Over many decades (probably centuries) the silt and sand from the San Luis Valley was deposited in this one area with the de Cristos range on one side and the San Juan range on the other side of the valley, creating a place for these dunes to deposit. We only hiked up into the "foothills" of the dunes which took us almost an hour, probably to reach the top of the closer dunes it would take one 2-3 hours to reach them and a lot of water. I now have empathy for Lawrence of Arabia and his desert adventures. Grilling tonight and hopefully we'll have another beautiful sunset over the San Luis Valley, tomorrow back to Denver. Take care, J&S