Story by Nicole

We went with a group of friends to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve for the full moon in September. The sand dunes are a pretty amazing natural feature of Colorado. They are large and dramatic and surrounded by mountains. Even though Jason has a great dislike of sand, he was lured by the friends, camping, and promise of pretty photos. 

On Friday night, we camped at Valley View Hot Springs, which is a secluded, beautiful hot springs nestled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We spent the evening soaking in the warm water and explored the area a little more in the daylight before setting off for the sand dunes.The view from our campsite (Photo/Jason Rafal)Exploring the Orient Land Trust area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The sand dunes are visible from a distance as you drive along the highway, but you don’t really have a good sense of their massive scale until you get much closer. We stopped at the dunes to try to get a campsite (in a stroke of luck, we actually got the last campsite available within the park) before heading to Alamosa for lunch.

On the way back from lunch, we stopped to hike at the Zapata Falls area to do some hiking. We had fun doing some mild off-roading to the trailhead (the people in the backseat were less amused) so we could explore the creek and get some nice views of the sand dunes.Looking up the canyon (Photo/Jason Rafal)Contemplating the creek (Photo/Jason Rafal)The dunes in the distance (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After hiking, we headed to the dunes to set up camp. Most of Colorado has had a fire ban this fall because it’s been so windy and dry, but thankfully we were still allowed to have fire in a an established campsite grill. After cooking, eating, and warming up by the fire, we headed out into the darkness to hike the dunes.Sunset creeps closer (Photo/Jason Rafal)The beautiful shadows of the dunes at dusk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m going to disappoint you right now and tell you that we don’t have any fantastic dune pictures from our hike. The full moon allowed us to see fairly well, but it wasn’t quite bright enough for Jason to justify bringing his camera. I will tell you, though, that hiking on the dunes in the moonlight is amazing. The shadows are disorienting, and it’s impossible to tell how steep or high each dune is. It’s like being on another planet.

After we got back, Jason and Eric took some photos with a tripod, which turned out pretty cool.A plane crosses the starry sky (Photo/Jason Rafal)Eric is dramatic in the moonlight (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Sunday morning, Eric and I took a hike on the dunes before we headed back to Denver (Jason was done with the sand at that point). The dunes are totally different during the day—much less mysterious and unnerving, but still very impressive. After spending some time hiking up and sitting on the vast ridges of sand, we went back to camp to pack up and head back to civilization.Footsteps in the sand dunes (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On the way back to Denver, we stopped at Kenosha Pass to take some pictures of the fall colors. I would highly recommend visiting Kenosha in mid to late September. There are huge aspen groves that turn from bright green to yellow and deep orange. It was a beautiful day, and it definitely felt like fall. I hope the lovely season doesn’t pass too quickly.A variety of fall colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)More mountain colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)