Last Light on Star Dune - a photo on Flickriver

            The setting sun blesses the crests of the dune field with rich, warm light in the shadows of the west escarpment of Medano Peak (middle distance), and the Crestone Peaks (far distance), Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. At larger sizes, patches of bright yellow aspen can be discerned in the growing twilight. Medano Peak is actually the original name of what is currently referred to as Mount Herard (13,345 ft, 4068 m), but the mountain has only worn that moniker for 32 years. Apparently a white guy with the surname of Herard claimed land near the foot of the mountain in 1876, and notwithstanding this fact, it’s unclear to me why we should change a mountain’s name from what everyone knows it to be. Denali is case in point. 

In the foreground, Star Dune forms the highest point in the dune field, and rises to a height of 750 ft. (230 m) above the floor of the San Luis Valley. At this height, Star Dune is the tallest dune in the United States. The dune field is almost half a million years old, and formed from sand and silt deposits from a vast glacier-fed lake that once existed not far to the west. The strong winter winds out of the west have worked on those ancient lake sediment deposits for a good long time now, and the process continues to the present day. As mineral-rich gusty air out of the west collides with the western flank of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east, sand continues to drop out in the eddies as the dunes imperceptibly grow ever higher.

Explored 2016-10-21

Taken in: United States / Colorado / Alamosa (show map)

Taken on: October 1, 2016

Tags:

sand

sand dunes

Great Sand Dunes National Park

sunset

magic hour

National Parks

National Park

U.S. National Parks

evening

autumn

autumn sunset

San Luis Valley

Colorado

Colorado Rockies

Sangre de Cristo Mountains

mountains

Rocky Mountains

dune

dunes « less

Sets appears in: • Colorado • Crepuscular Light more » • Mountains and Sky • Personal Favorites « less

Groups appears in: • Colorado! • U.S. National Parks more » • Mountains • Landscape photography • Nature Photography • Landscape Exploration • National Parks, Monuments and Historical Sites • The Nature Conservancy • Landscapes!!! • Rocky Mountains Landscape & Wildlife Photos • Landscape Beauty ! • Golden Landscape, Only The Best ! (Post 1, Comment 1) • ☆The Power Of Now ☆ • Un-enhanced American West • ☯ la quinta essenza ☯ • * Sunsets & Sunrises * NOT B&W Photos • in explore • Colorado - Arizona - Utah Landscapes • Peak (Curated) • ᗩs Gooᗪ ᗩs it getᔕ (OPEN) • A NATIONAL PARK « less

Camera: Nikon D750, f/11.0, 1/30 sec, 240mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D750
Lens:	80.0-400.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length:	240mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-1/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Scene Capture Type:	Landscape
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.7 (Macintosh)
Show full info

Stats: 24,307 views / 81 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder