Morris Gulch

Each year in late September, Morris Gulch turns into a golden river of aspen trees. In contrast, the drier slopes of the montane zone support smaller trees and shrubs. Three-leaf sumac is a montane shrub that can turn brilliant ...

Mosca Creek

Narrow-leaf cottonwoods are large, shady trees along riparian corridors through montane and grassland areas. Some of the largest cottonwood trees in the park have been dated at over 300 years old.

Rocks at Mosca Creek are unique and between ...

Montville Nature Trail

The federally designated Wilderness Areas within the Park and Preserve are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, established in 1964 with the passage of the Wilderness Act. Today, over 100 million acres across the country are protected as ...

Medano Creek

In the 1920s, local newspapers ran articles estimating there was gold in the Great Sand Dunes worth at anywhere from 17 cents/ton to $3/ton. Active placer mining operations sprang up along Medano Creek. In the 1920s the Volcanic Mining ...

National Historic Landmark- Trujillo Homestead / Zapata Ranch

After the United States annexed Mexico’s northern territories in 1848, the new American citizens of the Southwest moved north and east. One of these Hispano Americans was Teofilo Trujillo, who settled with his wife in the San Luis Valley ...

Sangre de Cristos Mountains

In 1848, John C. Fremont was hired to find a railroad route from St. Louis to California. He crossed the Sangre de Cristos into the San Luis Valley in winter, courting disaster but proving that a winter crossing of ...

Star Dune

There are five dunes over 700 feet tall. The "High Dune" on the first ridge is neither the highest in elevation nor the tallest in the park, but it looks that way from the main parking lot. This is ...

Dunefield Overlook

Great Sand Dunes have been continually forming for over 400,000 years. The Great Sand Dunes form when wind and water move sand. Most sand comes from the San Juan Mountains, over 65 miles to the west. Larger, rougher grains ...

Upper and Lower Dogwood Trails

Walking paths have long been a part of Hot Springs National Park and the preceding Hot Springs Reservation. Many informal paths criss-crossed the mountains when Hot Springs Reservation was reclaimed by the federal government in 1878; however, formal trails were ...

Hot Springs Railroad

A narrow-gauge railroad line from Malvern to Hot Springs known as the “Diamond Jo Line” was completed by Jo Reynolds in 1875. Previous method of travel to hot springs had been a 24 mile hike by foot, horse, or carriage ...