Kevin leaps from High Dune on a blustery afternoon in Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

I’m in between trips after spending eight days teaching at the Monte Vista Crane Festival and the Zapata Ranch Sandhill Crane Photo Workshop. After the Monte Vista class, I stretched my legs at Great Sand Dunes National Park, with towering dunes sandwiched between granite 14,000 foot peaks and high desert. It’s a rare ecosysytem in the world and a special place to hike. I met Kevin and Tamara on top of High Dune – they stopped en-route to Tucson for a week’s vacation, adding Great Sand Dunes to their quest to visit all of America’s National Park. Now in their 20′s, Kevin and Tamara met while competing for the University of Wyoming swim team; so of course Kevin wanted to demonstrate his diving skills from the big pile of sand. We hiked out together, talking about adventure with no complaints about the miserable conditions.

I’ll post a recap of the (2) Zapata workshops soon.