The Great Sand Dunes National Park is located near Alamosa Colorado and consists of approximately 150,000 acres of diverse wilderness including; wetlands, grasslands, tundra, alpine lakes as well as aspen and pine forest .This area of sand dunes are the tallest in North America with the tallest dune in the park rising 750 feet from the floor of the San Luis Valley. The Great Sand Dunes were formed by sand and soil deposits from the Rio Grande and its tributaries that flowed through the San Luis Valley. Over time the westerly winds picked up sand particles in the flood plain but the wind could not carry them over the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range, so the sand was deposited on the east edge of the valley. It slowly grew and continues to grow today as the wind changes the shape of the dunes daily. There is not an accurate process to date sand so the age of the sand dunes is unknown. Spanish explorers came to the San Luis Valley in 1598. In the 1700’s the valley was a travel route between the High Plains and Santa Fe for the Comanche’s, Ute’s and the Spanish solders who probably used the dunes as a landmark along the trail. The Spanish and the Native American tribes also hunted and camped in this area. The Ute word for the Great Sand Dunes is “Sowapophe –Uvehe” -“The land that moves back and forth” The Jicarilla Apaches in northern New Mexico called the dunes “Sei – anyedi” – “It goes up and down”. One of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo was located here – the Blanco Peak. The area was also a “spiritual link” to the Tewa/Tiwa speaking pueblos along the Rio Grande who had a traditional site near the dunes - “the lake through which their people emerged into the present world”. There is a stand of over one hundred ponderosa pines near the dunes where the native tribes peeled the bark for food and medicine. These five hundred year old trees are “living artifacts’ and the only grove of trees on the National Register of Historic Places. The first known written words about the dunes was from Zebulon Pike on his expedition in 1807. In 1853 Captain John Gunnison and his survey party crossed the dunes on horseback with the horses sinking to their knees in some places. He wrote “Sand so heavy that we were six and one –half hours in making ten miles.” As exploration of the Rockies continued settlers began to arrive in the San Luis Valley and establish homesteads near the dunes. The efforts of the Ladies PEO organization were responsible for making the Great Sand Dunes a National Monument in 1932. In 2000 President Bill Clinton passed the legislation to increase the parks status to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. |
