When we visited this park back in 2010 for the first time in the middle of June, it was a low snow year and the creek that is at the base of the Great Sand Dunes was dry.
This go around, the creek was wide and flowing. Interestingly most of the creek is 1-inch depth or less, but very wide (couple hundred feet in spots) as it passes over the wide flat sand area. Even more interesting is the surges in the flow that take it to 2-inches in spots, and then these waves form on the surface. It is amazing to see and hear.
Needless to say I played around with many comps and shutter speeds on these waves and action of the water there in the creek.
Having all this with the 800 foot tall sand dunes and the 13,000 elevation plus peaks of the mountains beyond is very cool to take in.
Here the capture was taken later in the afternoon on a cloudy sunset with the west end of the dune field in the view. The ripples and waves on the water was very cool ... and COLD too. Put those hiking water shoes to use quite a bit here that I normally use for streams and waterfalls. It was easy to wash all the sand out later too :)
Loading contexts...
