Welcome to Travel Tuesday! Maybe climbing the High Dune Trail the day after I climbed the Manitou Incline wasn’t the best of ideas, but…you only live once, right?
High Dune Trail in the Great Sand Dunes National Park
Distance: ~3 miles (out + back)
Elevation:Ā 629 ft
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult
Duration: ~2 hours
Trailhead Address: 37.74907Ā°N / 105.53287Ā°W
Parking: Included with admission ($25 for a 7-day pass, $45 for annual pass, or $80 for the interagency annual pass)
There are 5 dunes that are over 700 feet tall. Despite its rather misleading name, High Dune is not one of them (although it gets pretty close at 699 feet!). High Dune is only named High Dune because it looks like the tallest one in the park when you first get there.
High Dune gives you a great view of the entire dunefield and is probably the most popular hike. There’s no actual “trail” per se–you just keep walking til you get to the top of it.
Start by crossing the Medano creekbed and then just keep heading…up. Zigzagging your way up can help.
On its own, High Dune probably wouldn’t be too challenging of a hike, but it’s rough when every step you take makes you sink into the sand. I was wearing hiking boots and definitely would highly recommend against that, because each step caused more sand to fill up in my boot.
(I ended up taking off my boots and hiking in my socks because the sand was too hot to hike barefoot. The sand surface can get up to 150 F!!)
You can go sandboarding/sand-sledding here! You’ll want to find something specifically made for sand with a really slick base material and a special type of wax, or you won’t go anywhere. (As my friend and I discovered at a different set of sand dunes…)
P.S. If you see any sign of a storm and/or lightning or hear any thunder, do NOT continue your hike! It’s in your best interest to leave as quickly as possible as there’s kinda nowhere to hide up there.
- Have you ever visited Great Sand Dunes National Park?
- Have you ever gone sand-boarding or sand-sledding?
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I love your hiking posts and reading about all the different places you visit. This one looks so fun (and challenging). haha!
Aww, thank you! :] I’m glad you enjoy them! This was a fun one, but definitely a workout! :P
I love the photos of the Sand Dunes! I hope to visit and hike the dunes myself one day.
I hope you get to go sometime! It’s such a cool place!
This is a goal for the summer, if our summer plans don’t get destroyed by coronavirus. This was one of the places that we were going to visit in Colorado. Have to get those NPS stamps, you know? š
haha, agreed! I’ve been trying to get one from every national park too! :]!
I will add this to my travel bucket list! I love all the pictures you shared!!
Aww, thank you! :] I hope you get to go sometime!!
I have never been here but looks like fun!
It was such a cool place to visit! :]
Wow, what a fun adventure! This would be a fantastic experience with kids. I will definitely add it to our bucket list. Great post!
Thank you! I bet they’d love it! :D
Walking barefoot on that sand must be amazing experience. Looks like you had a blast there! Lovely photos.
It was awesome there (save for the parts when the sun was shining directly into the sand–it got a tad hot, hehe). Thank you! :]
I have started loving hikes so much during the last years. Would love to do a hike through the dunes!
I hope you get to go sometime! :]!!
I love walking barefoot on the sand dunes š
It was a lot of fun! :]
This sounds like a fun challenge! Walking in the sand looks super difficult but could be fun!
Agreed, haha. It was fun when my feet weren’t burning! :P!
I was wondering how hot that sand gets as soon as I saw the picture of your boots off – but goodness that is crazily hot! Did you go super early in the morning to avoid the worst of it?
p.s. I love that high dune isn’t really the highest, but that it just looks the highest from the car park. Lol It'[s so funny how the world works.
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hahaha, it was suuuper hot! I drove down from Colorado Springs that morning, so sadly, I didn’t get to avoid the worst of it, so I’d just alternate between wearing socks and resting in the shade (worked out ok, thankfully)!
Agreed! The name definitely threw me off! :P
It sounds like an awesome workout! My dad and I stopped here a few years ago on a cross-country road trip, but he’s 88, so we just hung out in the visitor center and took some photos. Next time, I’ll tackle the dunes!
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Aww, I’m glad you got to at least take some photos! :] Hope you get to explore the dunes sometime–I wanna get to Star Dune next time!!
I absolutely loved Great Sand Dunes National Park! I went in winter and the sand was still a little hot so I can only imagine what it was like in summer. It sounds like it was bearable though with your socks on? Oh and thanks for the tip on avoiding this trail if storms are likely. That’d be kinda scary to be stuck out there in a lightning storm!
It was surprisingly bearable with socks on, but I couldn’t last very many steps without them, haha. It’d definitely be scary to be stuck out there in a storm! I’m really glad the weather stayed ok while I was there!
Your photos of the dunes made me feel as if I was right there on the hike. Iām not sure what would be the right footwear for such a hike if barefooted is too hot. Looks like a lot of fun.
Yay! Mission accomplished! :P I’m not sure either (maybe hiking sandals?)–my boots got way too weighed down.
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