May 13, 2009 Great Sand Dunes National Park -By Mel- So Josh and I went to Sand Dunes National Monument this week on our days off...I'd never been before, and he'd been wanting to go back, so we decided to have fun and get out of the house for a couple days. It's a really bizarre sight when it first comes into view...30 square miles of massive sand dunes, bordered on one side by towering 14,000 ft mountains, and on the other by flat prairie that stretches on for miles. It doesn't look as if it belongs in Colorado somehow. Apparently, the sand runs off the mountains in the streams, and the wind from the prairie sweeps in right back to the mountains feet. Once you get over how out of place it looks, it's actually quite beautiful. Looking out, you see peak after peak of rolling sand, their sharp ridges clearly defined by the dark shadows below them, and behind it all, the rugged tops of white dusted mountains. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.