This stop was not nearly as fun for me as others were. I hate sand – and that’s all that there is. But I’m happy to say that I climbed halfway up the sand dunes. The great sand dunes has an elevation of 8,200 feet, and the tallest dune stands at 750 feet high. The hike to get to the sand dunes alone is about a mile and a half, and you either have to go early in the morning or late at night because the sand gets so hot. We went to the sand dunes twice – once at night after Mesa Verde, and then again in the morning. It was fun to see the people sledding down the dunes, and I wish we had brought something to do that with. After the sand dunes we took a nice hiking trail nearby to a waterfall, which was a good break from the heat.

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