Description

This image of The Great Sand Dunes represents one of my favorites. This park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising about 750 feet. They are about 12,000 years old and nicely represent where star dunes are present. This happens when an area's wind regime is quite complex resulting in a star pattern as seen from above, as apposed to crescentic or linear varieties.

Sometimes an exciting photograph can be captured during not so comfortable times or conditions. I remember getting up that morning and seeing the dunes lightly covered in snow. I grabbed my cold camera and started out to look for some good cold photographs. The sky was extremely moody and challenged my ability to capture the fast changing light as it shifted in and out of shadow.

By the time I found this location, I noticed that the snow was melting - or subliming - going directly and mysteriously from solid to gas instead of just melting wet.