Our 2nd National Park of 12 we plan to visit this summer. These are the largest sand dunes in North America. We did stop here with the kids in 2010 but it was March and the dunes were covered in snow. We only got one good day on the dunes because the wind was SO crazy on the 2nd day.
This is Medano Creek which you have to cross to get to the dunes.
We decided to hike up to a chosen peak but not all the way to the top because it is SO MUCH HARDER than it looks to climb these!
She still has energy.
Showing the wind blowing the sand. It was basically beating us to death.
Okay, enough is enough.
We liked the cool ridge at the top of the dune. We didn’t like it enough to keep hiking and visit – this is as close as we got.
Those folks made it all the way to the top! Whew! That is way farther than it looks.
The changing sunlight makes the patterns and shadows continually different.
Beautiful sunset on day 1 from our campsite.
The moon was coming up at the same time the sun was setting over the campsites.
The beautiful, clear view from our RV of the dunes (after our neighbors left).
The CRAZY wind storm that lasted most of day 2 and hid the dunes and mountains and kept us from going back. The wind seemed so crazy on day 1 that we cannot imagine anyone could be at the dunes on day 2.
The sun was hidden by sand/dust for many hours. Also, our RV was covered in a layer of dust inside and out after all of that wind.
