Great Sand Dunes National Park is quite the unique landscape for a National Park System, where towering mountains of sand rise against the backdrop of Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I arrived mid-afternoon, collected my passport stamps and Junior Ranger badge, then spent the rest of the day trekking into the dunes. Hiking on sand is far more challenging than it looks, especially at over 8,000 feet of elevation. I made a solid attempt at reaching High Dune but came up two ridges short before deciding to save something for a future visit. Along the way, I discovered that body sledding without an actual sled mostly results in getting sand everywhere—and Anakin Skywalker was right: sand really is coarse, rough, and gets into everything.

Despite not being much of a beach or sand person, I came away appreciating the park. The sweeping dune field surrounded by rugged mountain peaks creates scenery unlike anywhere else I've visited, and the afternoon cloud cover and light rain made for ideal hiking conditions during an otherwise hot July day. While I think a single day is enough to experience the park's highlights, I would happily return with my family to conquer High Dune, rent a sand sled, and experience one of the park's famous sunrises or sunsets. Great Sand Dunes surprised me—not because I fell in love with hiking through sand, but because of the incredible landscape that makes it one of the most distinctive parks in the country.