another jewel

Two weeks ago, this blog featured one of the jewels of the Southwest - Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains of southern Arizona.  Today, another jewel and America's newest national park, is the feature.  Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in southern Colorado is a sight to behold.  Epic dunes ranging in dimension from a few feet high to many stories high comprise the 30 square mile dunefield.  It is mesmerizing and endless and takes the mind anywhere it wants to go.  Otherworldly is probably used much too frequently but nonetheless is an apt description.  A not so still still life.

If you look at the mid to upper left hand portion of the sand that forms a big bowl in the photograph below, you will see circles of sand being deposited onto a huge dune.  The wind is constantly constructing and destructing and beginning the work again.

You can spend a massive amount of shutter time with these dunes.

Sand Creek is not in its water phase at this point but probably will be in a month or so when the high country snows melt and feed it.

The vernal equinox is Sunday and the light couldn't be better.  My hope is that you are able to "get out and shoot" as photographer Diane DiRoberto says.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image