Star Dune

From the Dunes Parking Lot, follow Medano Creek’s bed about 2 miles south until the pyramid comes into view, then climb a ridge to the summit. The approach crosses loose sand at high elevation, and there’s no marked route across the dunes. Plan for several hours and don’t rely on hiking apps, which can draw inaccurate lines here. When Medano Creek is flowing, you may need to wade it.

Start early in summer. Afternoon sand can reach 150°F, and thunderstorms can bring lightning.

The ridge climb brings you onto the dune’s broad, pyramid-shaped crest, with the dunefield spread below and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rising beyond it. The Crestone Peaks make a striking backdrop. For a photo, keep the sculpted sand ridges in the foreground and the peaks behind them; that shows the scale of the dunes against the mountains.

Streams carried sand and sediment into the San Luis Valley, and southwest winds pushed it toward the bend in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Opposing storm winds helped build the dunes upward. Medano and Sand Creeks now pick up some of that sand on the mountain side and carry it around the dunefield to the valley floor, where wind can sweep it back again. The dunes are always being reshaped by that exchange between water and wind.

Look across the slopes for wind ripples, animal tracks, and grains in different colors. In warmer months, seven insect species found nowhere else in the world are adapted to this dune environment. The scale of the place makes those small details easy to miss, so take a moment to look down as well as out toward the mountains.