The biggest pile of sand in North America

The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado truly live up to their name. They are enormous, much bigger than they look. The tallest dune is over 750 ft tall and the sand dunes themselves stretch over 30 miles along the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Walking up them is kind of like walking up a stair stepper. 2 steps forward, 1 step back, the whole way up. However, the scenery makes you forget that you’re tired. From the top ¾ of your view is snowcapped mountains spotted with trees and patches of sunlight that come through the clouds. The rest is an expansive vista of plains that stretch 100 miles to the other side of the valley where another mountain range closes in the San Luis Valley. Shortly after I got to the top, the most prodigious sandstorm erupted, pelting my body with sand whipping around at 50 miles an hour. Once it got unbearable, I started down only to be pelted with hail and snow hitting me with the same speed. It was a pretty awesome storm and it made it kind of fun to roll down the sand dunes in the midst of the maelstrom of snow, hail, and sand. When I got down I realized I had skinned off a patch of hair off my legs from the sand. All in all, painful, but a good day.