Storm's-A-Brewin' [Explore] - a photo on Flickriver

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve just causes cognitive dissonance to me. How this enormous sand dune exits on the high Colorado Plateau (over 7500' in the San Luis Valley) at the base western base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range can be explained by geologists, but it simply doesn't resonate with my concept of Colorado's topography.

On a road trip through Colorado, my wife and I stopped here for a brief visit to check out the dunes up close. Since it was late in the day, we did not go sand sledding, but we did climb a remote slope on the eastern side of the dunes, which was far more difficult than one might imagine.

Seeing the gathering storm clouds and having a tight travel timeline, we decided to depart the park well before sunset, with a brief stop along the entrance road, where I photographed this lone tree looking back across the valley past the dunes toward Mount Herard and the rest of the Sangre de Cristo Range. 30 minutes later, the area was awash in rainstorms.

Congrats on Explore!
#53 ⭐ February 6, 2025

Recognition:
Accepted for Display - SEP 2023 Darkroomers Photographic Club at the Photographic Arts Building in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

Taken in: United States / Colorado / Liberty (show map)

Taken on: August 28, 2023

Tags:

America

B&W

Clouds

Cloudy Skies

Colorado

Darkroomers

Dunes

Famous Place

Grass

Great Sand Dunes National Park

High Dune

International Landmark

Landscape

Monochrome

Mosca

Mount Herard

Mountains

NPS

National Park

National Park Service

Nature

North America

San Luis Valley

Sangre de Cristo Range

Tourist Attraction

Travel Destination

Travel and Tourism

Tree

USA

United States

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Explore

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/10.0, 1/320 sec, 80mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF24-105mm f/4L IS II USM
Aperture:	f/10.0
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	80mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Partial
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.1.1 (Windows)
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