Great Sand Dunes

One of the anticipated destinations on the trip a few weeks ago was Great Sand Dunes NP.  When we were last in the Southwest a couple years ago, White Sands was one of the favorite stops on the trip.  We didn’t plan to get south of Albuquerque this time around but knew that Great Sand Dunes was on the way home, the last major stop on the trip (don’t worry, I have more of the in between yet to come in future posts)

The weather the whole trip was a little odd relative to expectations.  Several days featured broody storms whose precipitation may or may not have hit the ground before evaporating back into the atmosphere.  The morning of our trip to GSD began differently, quite sunny and pleasant.  So much so that the entire state of Colorado made it to the dunes that day.  Same thing was the case at White Sands, but I trekked the marked trail out and away from the dune sledders to find some unblemished hills. 

Not feeling a long dune hike in my legs on this day, the end of a long trip.  So we sought to drive north around the crowds.  The road was gravel, rough and primitive.  The Outback made it to the point of no return, from where only high clearance vehicles were allowed to go.  Once we pulled into the lot, the only car there, one of the tire sensors went off.  It wasn’t a surprise, this tire had a slow leak the whole trip, but we didn’t want to be stuck there if it worsened, relying on an iffy air compressor to save the day.  So we pulled the plug, got some air in the tire and headed back to the populated parts of the park, became discouraged and left with the intention to come back, later when perhaps the light and the crowds were better.

While away we visited the Alamosa Wildlife Refuge, an important stop on the migratory trail for many species of birds like Sandhill Cranes.  There weren’t any of those to be seen, but we managed some mudhens and a couple horses in the pasture across the street.  During that time storm had brewed up and there were windy spits of water that stung when they hit. 

We headed back to GSD for the evening with hopes that the rain had chased off the sledders and that as the system cleared we might get some dramatic eastern skies when the setting sun broke through in the west.  Neither of those things really happened. 

So we parked headed to the creek, lost the shoes and socks and walked across the sandy shallow delta to the dunes and took in the moment.  Even if no great images were to be made that day, we saw someplace special and new.  I took the M1 with me, thank goodness for weather sealing, figuring I would take some shots that would serve as scouting images for a next time.

After getting home and settled, when I worked on the images from that day, there was one that seemed to have more potential than I had expected of any of them on that day.A strategic crop, some selective dodging and burning to separate the sand from the cloudy sky while keeping the snow capped mountains dark at the lower levels and despite the challenge of the day, I realized I had an image I liked.