But he knew what to do. The delight of plummeting down a slip face so thrilled him that he forgot to complain about the ache and stretch when we had to climb back up, and he almost didn't mind the wind-whipped sand that stung our bare calves when we reached the crest of the high dune. Our senses reassert themselves in this place. We feel with a shock the cold of Medano Creek as we wade ankle-deep on our walk to the dunes. Darkness, real darkness, fills the night sky with stars, the garland of the Milky Way unreeling, bringing us closer to other worlds.
Riders cover the sandy ground rumored to conceal oxcarts, towns and shipments of gold.
Great Sand Dunes National Monument balances pairs of opposites. Aridity and moisture, heat and cold, light and darkness, curve and angle, change and constancy, desert and mountain, windstorm and stillness. Alpine lakes rest serene in meadows filled with wildflowers, while below lie prairie and desert, cactus and tarantula. They are right. Reaching into New Mexico from south-central Colorado, covering an area nearly three times the size of Delaware, the valley floor sweeps away in smooth planes.