Mount Herard

Mount Herard is a high, dome-shaped peak in Great Sand Dunes National Preserve, both a prominent skyline landmark and an advanced backcountry hike. The draw is the view from above the dunefield, but this isn’t a casual detour: I’d save it for hikers prepared for steep climbing and thin air. If you want to see the mountain without summiting, Ponderosa Point has a roadside view of Herard and the dunes.

Medano Lake Trailhead is about an hour and a half by 4WD from the visitor center on Medano Pass Primitive Road. Beyond the Point of No Return, the NPS requires a high-clearance 4WD vehicle with low-range 4L; 2WD and AWD aren’t allowed. The road typically opens in mid-to-late May and stays open into late November, but snow and creek levels can change that. Check current conditions before setting out. This is a backcountry hike, with no food service or visitor facilities reported at the trailhead or summit, so bring your own food and water.

The trail reaches Medano Lake before continuing steeply for another 1.5 miles to the summit. From up there, the dunes spread out below you in an aerial view that’s hard to get anywhere else in the park. For a photo, include some of the summit rock in the foreground to give the dune field scale, and stay well back from exposed edges.

This climb links several of the park’s landscapes: desert dunes, forest and meadows, an alpine lake, then tundra near the summit. Snowfields on Mount Herard are the source of Medano Creek, part of the watershed that helps sustain the dunes.

The mountain was named for the pioneering Herard family, who settled in Medano Canyon. Jean Francois and Julia Herard came west after his Civil War service and built a remote homestead with a log house, cabins, corrals and a blacksmith shop. They ran cattle in the canyon meadows and raised trout in holding ponds.