Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado

Like sands through the hourglass. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Today we celebrate the birthday of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, which boasts 750-foot (and higher) sand dunes that cover more than 30 square miles. But the towering hills of sand—the tallest in North America—are just one feature of an eye-popping Colorado landscape that includes conifer forests, alpine lakes, and wetlands. The 150,000-acre park and preserve even encompasses stretches of tundra at the higher elevations, where it edges up against the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Initially proclaimed a national monument in 1932 by President Herbert Hoover, the territory was redesignated as Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve on September 13, 2004, and the size of the park was quadrupled. The protected landscape provides ample opportunities for visitors to enjoy a wide range of activities, from sandboarding and sand sledding down the steep dunes to hiking, camping, horseback riding, and fat-tire biking.