What? A totally dog-friendly National Park? Amazing!
Well, to be completely honest, dogs must be on a leash at all times. So you didn’t see these pictures of Honey running around with a loose leash, did you? All the pictures you saw looked like this one:
…with Honey pulling wildly on the leash. OK?
The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is located at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, on the edge the San Luis Valley, in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The park protects the tallest sand dunes (750 feet) in North America, which cover an area of 19,000 acres. It’s a kind of remote park, not close to a lot else of interest, so it’s not too heavily visited.
The sand dunes themselves are pretty darn cool, but the stream running at their base is probably the coolest thing about the whole park. The Medona River is seasonal, created by snowmelt from the mountains and running only in the Spring and early Summer. It is wide and shallow, and runs between the parking lot and the dunes, requiring wading for all who want to walk up the dunes. Fun!
The water is fresh, perfectly clear, and surprisingly warm. I guess it has a long way to run in the sun before it gets here.