Our little cabin in the woods, Twin Rivers, is cozy. Outside it is drizzling as it has been for the last 10 days, we are told. Today’s journey takes us alongside the Conejos River and the aspens on the hillsides are abundant and more colorful than we have seen all over Colorado. The Cottonwoods line the river and the combined effect is mesmerizing. The skies clears for a few hours, great for both photographer and fisherman!
In the afternoon, we make our way north to the Great Sands National Park, the 4th national park on our journey. More than 30 square miles of dunes are ringed by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and aspens in full color. This park has the highest dune in North America at 750 ft.
I am there to photograph the dunes at sunset. It takes us a while to figure out how to get out to the dunes but we follow others and wade across Medano Creek. After crossing, we hike across a large plain and finally onto the dunes. It is very, very windy and we can see sand blowing across the ground, which makes for difficult photographing. As the sun sets, the shadows form across the sand and interesting curvatures appear. We stay until the colors of the sky turn orange from the sunset.
Tonight is the harvest moon and the night sky is clear enough to see it shining brightly on the desert.