great Sand Dunes

Highway 70 crosses Kansas east to west undulating across endless spring green fields before branching southwest towards Colorado. Wallace, Kansas has a small regional museum which includes a number of historical buildings along with a central building housing local artifacts. Outside the museum stood a barbed wire buffalo created from 2 miles of used fence wire collected and refashioned by the artist Ernie Poe. Several people were installing the art of another local artist on a new pedestal. Tractor trailers filled with grain from local silos were rolling along the adjacent road. The local highway spilled into the southeastern corner of Colorado over snow covered wind swept fields at the base of snow covered mountains. April 2017.

He left his hotel in Fort Garland, Colorado early on a Friday morning hoping to take advantage of the shadows before the afternoon sun flattened the visual landscape. He hoped to video record the dunes without the families of dune surfers who were bound to show up for the weekend. As it was, the campsite was nearly full. In early April there was still snow on the dunes. Great Sand Dunes National Park is in southeastern Colorado at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. The sun had barely risen above the mountains to the east leaving the dunes in the shadows.

Great Sand Dunes are the tallest sand dunes in north america. A rif6 Cube pico projector sits in a depression of a ridge throwing its animated images onto a darkened sand surface half way up the slope. The video projected was of a shirtless golfer who was playing golf at Riis Park Golf Course in Queens. The video animation golferWithoutShirt was not washed out by the morning light. The depression was still in the shade. The sun had not reached the projected image. Great Sand Dunes was created by the predominant prevailing winds which funnel sand to the base of of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in an area which was once an ancient lake bed. Walking on the dunes was not difficult until trying to ascend the steeper slopes where the sand pack gave way to deeper looser sand. Then each step uphill resulted in sliding back down hill. Walking became exhausting.

The nearest town to Great Sand Dunes with motels
and restaurants is Fort Garland, Colorado. Outside
Del's Diner is a spaceage childrens playground
piece next to a broken down wooden wagon.
Marilyn Monroe looks down from a wall in the
diner. The waitress serves hamburgers or eggs
to patrons sitting at booths waiting to eat.
The dunes are popular for families and sand
surfers who rent boards at a store before entering
the park. On leaving the park he stopped at a gift
shop/grocery store on the outskirts of the park.
Between the t-shirts and the soft drinks the
proprietors rented sand boards, a cross between
surf boards and skateboards.