Just over 12 hours after landing in Denver, Colorado, we found ourselves hiking High Dune in Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Our adventure started in the early hours of August 15th as our alarm sounded at 3:30am. The sheer scale and beauty of what we saw a few hours later was one of the most amazing things we’ve seen on our travels…

At exactly 3:30am on August 15th, our alarm sounded. We were already awake though. After landing in Denver less than 24 hours ago, our body clocks had even started to adjust to the time difference yet. If you ever want to make it easier to wake up early, jet lag helps!

We climbed out of our sleeping bags and unzipped the tent doors, welcomed by the sound of crickets all around. The stars were still shining bright in the sky and the full moon allowed us to move around without a torch!

We made time for breakfast to cram in as much energy as we could for what we were about to take on! It wasn’t too glamorous, we literally warmed up two tins of beans and ate them out of the pot! Add in a cereal bar or two later and we were ready to head off.

The dunes trail was only a few steps away from our camp site, so we were quickly on our way. We’d only made it about 50 metres down the path when we felt a pair of eyes staring back at us from the darkness. As we shone the torch towards it, a lone deer was standing looking right at us a few metres away from the path. It could be worse, but in the dark it was a pretty terrifying few seconds!

After realising we were safe, we carried on down the trail until we made it to Medano Creek bed crossing. After getting our feet pretty wet in the stream of water, we walked another half mile to reach the base of the dunes.

By this point, the moon had set and the sky started to paint itself in candy floss colours. It was a beautiful way to start our ascent.

As we started walking up the face of the first dune, we quickly forgot how beautiful the sky was and only felt how much our legs were burning! Everything we had read in advance warned of the strenuous hike, but honestly we weren’t expecting quite how tough it would be. The trick is to zigzag along the ridge line to save walking straight up the sheer faces of the dunes, which definitely helps, but doesn’t let you escape the calf burn.

We contemplated giving up at every ridge. Every time we made it to the top of one, we thought it was the final summit, only to be met by three more! With the sunrise only a few minutes away, we managed to push through the pain and persevere upwards.

As we got to the final ridge before High Dune, the sun broke over the top of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range and with our last bit of strength we pushed our bodies up the final slope and made it to High Dune.

The early wake up call and VERY strenuous hike was more than worth it in the end. We had the whole dune to ourselves for the entire time we were there. We ran, jumped, and threw sand in the air!

Then we just stopped and stared at the stunning scenery all around us. It’s another special moment we won’t soon forget.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve was our first stop on The Big Trip. Follow us to see the rest of our journey as we spend 3 months exploring America’s most beautiful National Parks.