Blown up and trapped against the rugged Sangre de Cristo Range, Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes are North America’s tallest sand dunes. They’re the centerpiece, focal point and namesake of Great Sand Dunes National Park.
There are no fewer than seven different life zones in the park, from mountains of sand to wetlands and grasslands to salt plains, subalpine forests and alpine tundra.
Each zone has its own specific fauna and flora, which, considering the park’s relatively small size makes it hugely biodiverse place.
The health benefits of hiking are well known and well documented nowadays. And few things are better for a “nature bath” than going on a reinvigorating hike in a national park. These are some of the greatest day hikes in the U.S. National Park System.
The 2023 summer is set to be one of the busiest in National Park Service history, if not the busiest. Parks from Yosemite to Arches and Zion have experienced exceptionally …
More often than not in America’s national parks, your dog is only allowed in campgrounds, on and near paved roads, and/or in some accommodations. Only in developed areas, in other words. Some parks, however, also welcome dogs on hiking trails. Here are the most dog-friendly national parks of them all.
America’s national parks are home to numerous scenic swimming spots, whether it’s a lakeshore, ocean beach, riverbank or even hot spring. Few things are more refreshing than jumping into a …
From old-growth forests to towering mountains, from rocky coasts to shimmering lakes, America’s national parks preserve all kinds of landscapes. One of the landscapes least suitable to humans, however, are …
Preserving some of America’s last remaining pristine night skies, many national parks offer amazing stargazing and Milky Way viewing opportunities. From Mesa Verde and Death Valley to Glacier and Voyageurs, these national parks have the most spectacular star-peppered night skies. “Half the park is after dark!”
I wholeheartedly believe that you can’t experience a national park to the fullest without spending the night there. As the saying goes, in many national parks “half the park is after dark.” So far, these are our all-time favorite national park campgrounds.
Of all major attractions found in America’s national parks, sand dunes may just be one of the most underrated. Yet, you can explore and enjoy some of the most spectacular sandy landscapes in a handful of national parks, from the Southwest to the Great Lakes and even Alaska.
Approaching through the San Luis Valley, you might at first think that the rolling sand dunes set against the towering Sangre de Cristo Mountains are some kind of fata morgana. The opposite, however, is true. This landscape, however surreal it may look, is actually real.
See the Rocky Mountains, towering sand dunes, deep canyons and countless Native American archaeological sites in these amazing national parks Near Denver, Colorado: Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde and Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
When thinking about America’s national parks, the same five or six names always come to mind first. There are, however, numerous other parks that are basically just as spectacular, but receive only a fraction of the visitors.