The Field Atlas

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All terrains

Seas of sand

Dunes destinations in the USA

Sand dunes gather where wind has a long fetch and loose grain: Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes, Oregon’s coastal ridges, and inland basins that still behave like a shore.

White Sands, New Mexico — Yucca on a dune at sunset

FrontispieceWhite Sands, New Mexico

Dune walking has no trail — look for the slip face, the windward ripple, and the hour when shadow makes the ridges readable.

Plates
9
States
8

States in this chapter

  • California
  • Colorado
  • Idaho
  • Michigan
  • New Mexico
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Wyoming

Dunes chapter

The plates

Yucca on a dune at sunset
Plate VI

White Sands

dune

Tularosa Basin, New Mexico

A sea of gypsum that behaves like snow and light.

32.8° N · 106.3° WOpen plate →

Dune crests under a snowy Sangre de Cristo wall
Plate XIX

Great Sand Dunes

dune

San Luis Valley, Colorado

A Sahara parked at the foot of fourteeners.

37.8° N · 105.6° WOpen plate →

Perched dunes above Lake Michigan
Plate XLVIII

Sleeping Bear Dunes

dune

Michigan

A dune so high the lake looks like another sky.

44.9° N · 86.1° WOpen plate →

A coral dune under the Vermilion Cliffs
Plate CXLVII

Coral Pink Dunes

dune

south of Mount Carmel Junction, Utah

Sand that is still the mountain, walking.

37.0° N · 112.7° WOpen plate →

Killpecker Sand Dunes in the Red Desert
Plate CLXVI

Killpecker Dunes

dune

Red Desert, Sweetwater County, Wyoming

Dunes that still move in a desert of sage.

42.0° N · 109.1° WOpen plate →

Pale dunes and a purple range at Little Sahara
Plate CXCVII

Little Sahara

dune

Sevier Desert, Utah

A small Sahara the basin kept.

39.7° N · 112.3° WOpen plate →

Sunflowers and living dunes at golden hour, Monahans Sandhills
Plate CCL

Monahans Sandhills

dune

Permian Basin, Ward County, Texas

A Sahara the basin kept between oil towns.

31.6° N · 102.8° WOpen plate →

Wind sculpture on Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve
Plate CCCXII

Kelso Dunes

dune

Mojave National Preserve, California

A singing dune sea under the Providence Mountains.

34.9° N · 115.7° WOpen plate →

Wind ripples on the pale face of Bruneau Dunes
Plate CCCXXIII

Bruneau Dunes

dune

Bruneau Dunes State Park, Snake River Plain, Idaho

A pale dune ridge over sage and a hard Idaho sky.

42.9° N · 115.7° WOpen plate →

Asked at the trailhead

Questions already asked

Where are the best sand dunes in the USA?
Great Sand Dunes in Colorado is the tallest. This atlas also maps coastal dunes and inland fields such as Monahans Sandhills in Texas so a trip can compare more than one shore of sand.

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