First of all, I had no clue that Great Sand Dunes National Park even existed until I started doing research for our trip. And wow, it was such an amazing visit, and one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was one of our first stops, during the first week of our road trip, and we were super excited for sand boarding and hiking the dunes. Although we never ended up sand boarding because when we arrived it was raining like crazy, the hike up the dunes was an experience I will never forget, and hope to do again some day.
The park itself isn’t big at all, but the dunes and the creek are easy to spend hours in! We stayed at Oasis Campground right outside of the park which was awesome as well!
While it was raining, and we were driving toward the dunes, they looked like they were glowing in the distance. It was v magical.
Our visit in June
We visited very early in June which is an awesome time to visit for the weather as well as for the creek! Medano creek was almost at the highest level and strongest flow from the mountain peaks’ snow melt, and the days were hot while the nights were chilly.
We were able to hike in the early morning while it was a nice cooler temperature, but the sun was already making us hot while we were hiking down the dunes.
Most people like to visit to swim or hangout in the creek, but when we were there the creek was so cold! The visitor’s center workers said that 2 weeks after we visited the water would be a bit warmer, but there’d be less of it.
In the summer months, the sand can get extremely hot and there’s absolutely no shade making hiking to the top of the dunes very hard. Depending on the activities you plan on doing keep in mind what time of the year you’re planning your trip!
Hiking the Dunes
Like I said, the weather was great for hiking the dunes. We started hiking around 7am and made it back down to the base around 10am. The sun was already super hot when we reached the top of the dunes. Since it had rained the night before, the wet sand was a bit easier to hike up until the sun started drying it out.
They say it takes about 2 hours round trip to get to the top, but we took breaks hanging out on the sand and drinking plenty of water. We also spent a decent amount of time at the top of the dunes checking out the view and taking pictures.
Hiking up sand is HARD! Keep in mind your footwear, we were wearing our Solomon Outline hiking shoes which had great grip for making it up the sand quick. Also, hiking along the ridges of the dunes makes it much easier to reach the top.
And bring plenty of water and sun protection. There is absolutely no shade on the dunes and in the summer it can get dangerously hot!
Oasis Campground
Oasis Campground is maybe 10 minutes down the road from the park. They have clean bathrooms with showers, and each spot has a fire pit and picnic table. We paid $25 to stay the night and it was well worth it! We ate at the diner at the campground, and it was super nice to have a hot meal after a shower and right before bed! Outside the window of where we were eating or dinner was a hummingbird feeder, and never in my life have I seen 2 hummingbirds sit still for so long.
The view of the sunset from the top of the campgrounds was unbelievable. We took some pictures and watched the sun dip below the mountains in the distance, and then we made our way to our campsite for bed.
The GreenHouse
Since it was raining the day we arrived and we could not go sandboarding like we had originally planned, we looked up other things we could do in the area. We had done a lot of straight driving to get out to Colorado, so we looked for hot springs and pools to relax our stiff bodies from all the driving. Finding The Greenhouse felt like finding a secret treasure on a map.
The Greenhouse is about 30 minutes from the sand dunes. It was $12 admission to the regular pool for students with ID, and an additional $5 for admission to The Greenhouse.
There’s a sauna, a larger swimming pool, multiple hot tubs filled with natural hot spring water of varying temperatures, food, and drinks. The best part is that while the general admission pool is all ages and swarming with young children, The Greenhouse was a 21+ sanctuary! It was very quiet and there were a couple of different groups of people, but not crowded at all.
They keep the temperature at 70 so it was nice and warm, and the best part is that you’re surrounded by plants! Huge fiddle leafs, monsteras, and pencil cacti! It was my little plant oasis.
Sunrise and Sunset
Sunset and Sunrise on the dunes is so gorgeous! Since there is mountains surrounding the dunes, you have small windows of time for when the sun hits the dunes before it dips below the mountains, or gets so high that you lose the shadows on the dunes. We woke up early for sunrise and drove toward the park to get some great shots.
Out of all of the places we visited, this national park and part of our trip was one of the most mesmerizing. It feels so wild and magical to have these giant sand dunes in the middle of nowhere.
