I decided I wanted to go to the Great Sand Dunes before winter hit. I knew it was about a 4-hour drive away from where I lived, so I stayed at a campsite in Buena Vista the night before. I slept in my car, woke up at 4:15, left by 4:30, and arrived at the Great Sand Dunes around 6:30am. I had many people recommend going at either sunrise or sunset due to the sand getting very hot during the day – so that is why I decided to go for the sunrise.
There weren’t that many people there when I got there – maybe a total of 10 other people. I wore flip-flops but noticed other people wearing tennis shoes. It was pretty difficult to walk up the dunes in flip flops personally, but I sucked it up since the sand was SO COLD. I’m not even exaggerating! I did walk barefoot for a bit, but my toes started to turn pink, and then all of a sudden they were numb, so yeah… very cold. I’d recommend a good sandal over flip flops, or I heard someone tell me they wore long socks with feet warmers in them 😛
I started walking up the dunes to get to a higher point. I’d definitely recommend bringing water as it’s no easy trek. Once I made it to the top, which took about an hour (I was clearly not in shape), the sun started to rise! It was so cool to see the change in color of the sand during this moment and to just sit and soak it all in. Plus, the sand started to get a little warmer than it initially was – so that was a plus 🙂 I eventually made my way back down to my car and after looking at my phone I noticed I had been there for a total of 1.5 hours – which felt like a good amount to me. I hiked up the sand dunes, hung out for a while at the top, and made the trip back down.
The perk of getting to the Great Sand Dunes early is that you don’t have to pay! I’m not sure what time the people who collect money get there, but they were not there at 6:30 when I arrived, but they were there at 8am when I was leaving. Just a tip that may help! If you’d rather watch the sunset, I believe the kiosk people leave around 5pm.
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