Geology Picture of the Week, September 12-18, 2004: Great Sand Dunes National PARK

Washington Post ^ | September 14, 2004

[cogitator]

The link to the Washington Post article above is about the new designation, promoting Great Sand Dunes from National Monument to National Park. The picture below I found searching on Google; it's not from the WashPost. I'm sure that I've done a previous Geology Picture of the Week on Great Sand Dunes (one of the most fascinating places I've ever visited, but I didn't get to see the pulsating Medano Creek - best time to see it is during spring melt season - I was there in January. So here's a really nice picture of creek, dunes, and mountains:

Link with two more images and short description:

Great Sand Dunes National Monument Park

Actually, reading this indicates it was upgraded to a Park in 2000, but that wasn't official until they purchased the surrounding ranchland/water rights. The National Park is bigger than the NM due to the addition of the new Baca Wildlife Refuge.

Google image searching on "Great Sand Dunes" provides plenty of other great images (and other places, too). Here's an example.

And here's a beautiful photograph of the waves in Medano Creek:

More about the creek: Mysterious waters of the dunes

[cogitator]

I've also managed to identify the dunefield from a commercial airline flight twice; once at high altitude going to L.A., and once at low altitude flying from Albuquerque to Denver.

[cogitator]

** ping **

[BykrBayb]

Ooh, pretty!

[UsnDadof8]

Brings back memories from my old home, San Luis Valley, Colorado....

[Quix]

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.

[cogitator]

I used NM for National Monument, not New Mexico. Sorry to confuse you.

[r9etb]

This is a neat place to visit. In the spring, there's a "pulsating stream," which is fed by snow melt from the surrounding mountains. When the sun is out, the water is very warm. When the sun goes behind a cloud, the water and surrounding sand becomes very cold in less than a minute -- an excellent real-world example of solar heating.

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.

[GVnana]

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.

[cogitator]

Good link, and a good explanation of why the Guvmint sought to upgrade Great Sand Dunes from a National Monument to a National Park.

[Quix]

Sorry.

What I get for scan/reading.

Thanks.

[cogitator]

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.

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.

[cspackler]

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...

[daybreakcoming]

Fascinating reading about the dune waters. thanks

[r9etb]

Even on a cool day, the sand gets REALLY HOT.

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....

[Lil'freeper]

...."I... am... a desert creature"....

[Lil'freeper]

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.

[Lil'freeper]

Road trip ping.

[subrosa sam]

Congratulations!
You managed to tell us about an interesting place without revealing where in the hell it's located!

[cogitator]

...."I... am... a desert creature"....

Yeah, you can definitely pretend you're Leto Atreides jumping from dune-top to dune-top here.

[cogitator]

You managed to tell us about an interesting place without revealing where in the hell it's located!

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)