Yeah, you can definitely pretend you're Leto Atreides jumping from dune-top to dune-top here.
Posted on 09/14/2004 12:40:29 PM PDT by cogitator
** ping **
Ooh, pretty!
Brings back memories from my old home, San Luis Valley, Colorado....
Uhhhh, maybe exposing my ignorance . . .
however,
Isn't the Sanddunes park IN Colorado?
As I recall, Colorado is smaller than NM.
I'm very skeptical that the dunes park is larger than New Mexico.
I used NM for National Monument, not New Mexico. Sorry to confuse you.
The pulsating stream is described here (the first place I found it....):
The persistence of Medano and Sand Creeks has prevented the dune field from extending up into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Medano Creek flows off Mosca Pass and then along the east, southeast, and south sides of the Great Sand Dunes. Sand Creek flows from the mountains just north of Medano Creek and continues along the east, northeast, and north sides of the Great Sand Dunes. These two creeks wash accumulating sand from the east side of the dune field, carrying it west back to the base of the dune field from where it is again blown east by the prevailing wind. This is recycling on a grand scale and it is accomplished, in part, by the "pulsating flow phenomenon" in Medano and Sand Creeks. The water flowing in these two shallow and wide creeks builds up miniature sand dams. The dams briefly impound the stream flow and then fail, sending a small wave of water down the stream, until it builds a new dam which, in turn, fails. This unique pulsating stream flow was one of the reasons that, in 1932, President Hoover proclaimed the Great Sand Dunes National Monument.
Very cool post. I'm going to be doing some serious road trips over the next couple of years to see more of this wondrous country. I'm putting this place on the list.
Good link, and a good explanation of why the Guvmint sought to upgrade Great Sand Dunes from a National Monument to a National Park.
Sorry.
What I get for scan/reading.
Thanks.
There's a lot to see in this section of Colorado. If you go north to Salida, you can go west to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison or east to Royal Gorge. If you keep going north from Salida, you'll see a number of 14,000+ peaks. Gorgeous country.
I remember visiting there way back when I was 13. The most vivid memory is being really stupid and running way out into the sand with no shoes on. Even on a cool day, the sand gets REALLY HOT. Damn, that left a mark...
Fascinating reading about the dune waters. thanks
And even on a really hot day, the sand and water get REALLY cold if the sun goes behind a cloud. It's an amazing change in a very short amount of time....
...."I... am... a desert creature"....
Well, if you're traveling through NM at all... you simply *must* get down to White Sands (and you gotta go barefoot through the sand). If you're going through southern UT, try to get to Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
Road trip ping.
Congratulations!
You managed to tell us about an interesting place without revealing where in the hell it's located!
Yeah, you can definitely pretend you're Leto Atreides jumping from dune-top to dune-top here.
Hey, I did provide a link! It's in south-central Colorado.
(The arrow in the map below is pointing somewhere else, to where the North Fork Bluegrass Festival will be held June 10-12, 2005 if you have to know)
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