Above is this weeks free desktop. Back this week to a place not featured here many times, but one I really enjoy visiting, Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve in southern Colorado. This park is located about 30 miles northeast of Alamosa, CO and contains North America's tallest dunes which rise over 700 feet. With the backdrop of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, these dunes almost have a surreal look to them and climbing them is a blast (and a bit of work also). The view from the top of the dunes definitely makes the high elevation the hike (the valley is in the 7500' range, so the dune peaks are above 8000') worthwhile, plus it's one of those places where you are allowed to "make your own trail" as there's basically a few places to start from and 30 square miles of 70 story sand to explore. This weeks shot not from the tallest dune (they're about a 1/4 west of here) looking north at fall color in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We ended our hike here, as you can tell from the photo, the weather was going down hill and we didn't want to get soaked (who would think you would have to worry about hurricanes in Colorado, but this was rain being spun up from a Pacific hurricane which was sent moisture through Arizona and into southern Colorado). Great Sand Dunes is really interesting park and has many hiking opportunities, both in the dunes and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.