Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

 dunes, national park

www.nps.gov/grsa/
www.nps.gov/carto/hfc/carto/media/GRSAmap1.pdf

North America's tallest sand dunes rise over 750 feet high against the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Range which forms the eastern boundary of Colorado's "mysterious" San Luis Valley. Great Sand Dunes was designated by proclamation of President Herbert Hoover in 1932 as our 36th National Monument. On November 22, 2000, President Clinton signed the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act of 2000, which authorized the expansion of the National Monument into a National Park almost four times its original size. This enlarged the area to 60 square miles or just over 38,660 acres. With this new addition the park’s resources now include alpine lakes and tundra, six peaks over 13,000', ancient spruce and pine forests, and large stands of aspen and cottonwood, grasslands, and wetlands. (partial credit to Wikipedia)