Arrival at the park
The new moon was quickly approaching in April of 2022, I knew astrophotography was needed in my not so distant future. My buddy Kalle (@KalleSorbo) had made a tweet expressing his interest in getting out to shoot some star photos as well, so I sent him a message and we agreed that Great Sand Dunes National Park would be an amazing spot to go and stargaze. Once we arrived at the parking lot for the sand dunes area of the park we quickly came up with a game plan as sunset and some AMAZING light would soon be upon us. Our plan was to climb to the top of star dune ( the highest dune in the park) that way we would have a nice long walk up during the sunset with the opportunity to capture the dunes from multiple vantage points while the golden glow of the setting sun told stories in light that danced across the sandy hills. We loaded up our packs with snacks, water, and MANY layers because it can get VERY cold out in the sand dunes even in the middle of summer. We both got very excited to set out into the dunes as we buckled up our packs, locked the car, and set out into the majestic sandy landscape that waited in front of us.
Medano Creek area
Looking towards the sun from the bottom of the dunes
A look up the initial ascent to Star Dune
The hike up to Star Dune and the sunset
As Kalle and I left the parking lot the sun was beginning to just sink below some of the clouds that lay on the horizon. We quickly traversed the Medano creek area that was surprisingly dry and made it to the bottom of the actual sand dunes themselves. The nice thing about the sand dunes is the wide variety of routes you can take to reach the top. The sand dunes in my opinion are a great place to work on building route finding skills for actually trying to reach the summit of a mountain because they can be somewhat forgiving in grade as well as the fact that they are just sand and can be gentler to travel on. For those visitors who are still a bit unsure about route finding, there is almost always a very clear path of footprints leading to the top on the most common route people choose. We initially took the same route many previous visitors that day had travelled but upon reaching the tops of some of the lower dunes we picked a wider route that followed a ridge line around towards the base of the summit to Star Dune. Right around reaching that ridge line the sun was starting to dip lower and lower towards the horizon and began to play peek a boo with some big fluffy clouds that were hanging over head. With our clear goal of reaching the summit by sundown coming closer and closer into reality we stopped along the way taking lots of breathers, snapping photos of the beautiful golden sand, and making memories of an amazing last minute adventure we were able to pull off. We reached the summit of sand dune just as the colors began to change from beautiful tangerine shades or oranges and golds to a beautiful blend of blue and pink hues melted into the clouds and stretching across the near endless desert of dunes that lie in front of us. The sun bid us a fond farewell for the evening as we began taking out or warmer layers and the cold of night began to creep up.
Grasses growing from the sands
@KalleSorbo standing atop a sandy ridge
Sunset from the summit of Star Dune
Astrophotography under a dark new moon sky
Once we were layered up and warm sitting into the sands as if they were a natural pillow to rest on we caught our breath after the long and steep hike up to the summit. We talked about how amazing the sunset was, reminiscing on our recent accomplishment of reaching the top of Star Dune as we dug into our rations which consisted of; Cheez its and peanut m&m's. We still had a couple of hours to wait for night to truly fall and the twinkling of the stars to emerge from the vast blue openness that hung above our heads. Tripods at the ready we began to lengthen our shutter speeds, widen our apertures, and increase our cameras sensitivity to the new absence of light that had befallen us. I laid back into the sands gazing up into darkness as that is all there was. Slowly and one at a time a tiny speck would appear in the sky making itself now present in the dark. The stars would grow brighter individually like guests we had summoned to a merry gathering arriving one at a time from their respective place in the universe all here now to put on a light show in the inky blackness that enveloped everything we had just seen glowing in a wide array of color just hours before.
Looking out over the dunes at night
The night sky under Star Dune
The summit of Star Dune during descent