Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Located in southern Colorado, between the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains, the Great Sand Dunes is one of America’s newest parks. In 2004, after the addition of 100,000 acres, it became known as Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Now the 24th coin in the National Park quarter series and 4th for 2014 will honor this awe-inspiring landscape – home to the tallest sand dunes in North America. As early as the 1920s, local residents realized the dunes’ importance as a natural wonder and a source of tourist income, so women’s groups asked Congress to preserve the dune area. In 1932, President Hoover signed a bill granting it monument status.
The tallest dune, called Star Dune, rises 750 feet above the San Luis Valley floor, and is part of a series of dunes that covers 30 square miles. The dunes began forming over 440,000 years ago, when opposing winds blew sand in the valley toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Today thousands of people visit annually to hike, sand sled, sandboard or ski and enjoy the park’s natural beauty. The grasslands offer visitors a chance to see elk, pronghorn antelope and deer. The mountainous areas give hikers access to lakes, wildflowers, viewing mountain goats, and the krummholz, “crooked wood” trees growing at about 11,700 feet.
