Dune Cats and Starry Nights
Is there a story buried under the dune cats?
Probably not.
I’ll tell it anyway: We went to the Great Sand Dunes Park and Preserve for a 24-hour “adventure” of lounging around with friends and looking at the stars. I’ve been to the Dunes three times before, and every time I start from the same large parking lot and head up what may or may not be the same dune, since they all look identical. Hiking up deep, soft sand is exhausting, but the landscape is really something else. It’s like being on another planet. Everything sounds muted, and the light catches the ridges of the dunes in the most beautiful way. Playing on the sand is a lot of fun, even if it means I’m digging sand out of my ear for the next several days. I recommend the experience, honest.
This trip, however, we headed straight for the campground, where Randall and his parents had reserved sites for the weekend. There were seven of us total, making for a great weekend of conversation, sand, photography, sand, night skies, sand, and laughter. We had a quick lunch, then relaxed under the sunshade. Since this was not a short day visit to the dunes, it was nice to kick back and watch the sand from afar. I went on a walk around the campground, armed with my camera and a telephoto lens. The campground sits a little higher than the river that flows in front of the dune field and offers great views. Through the lens I could see the paths of hundreds of visitors, crawling like termites over the mounds of sand, running, sliding, diving down ridges.
It’s like looking back in time, at the moment when I was that speck, rolling down a sand hill, laughing.
Farther away from the bulk of the people, I spot two lonely hikers. They have packs on their backs, and are heading up for a night on the dunes. It will be harsh and windy, but they will be completely surrounded by sand and silence. I am envious, though not of the weight they are lugging up the steep dunes.
Back at the campsite, we cooked an early dinner before sunset. I attempted to make huevos rancheros, but my camp food game is lacking. After years of primarily backpacking, my camp chef skills don’t extend much past “pour boiling water into bag of freeze-dried food, wait fifteen minutes.” I’m excellent at that. I like car camping, however, and I’m sure I’d like it even more if I could cook good food. Kit rescued my egg-disaster, and we ended up with a decent meal by the end. Everyone else was eating some gluten-filled something or another. Kit probably should have pooled into the group food, but he was trying to keep it simple and stick with me. In the end, I think some folks were jealous of our huevos.
After dinner, we walked out of the trees of the campsite to watch the sunset. As always, this was completely worth the time. The light was amazing! In moments like these, I wonder if photography distracts from the experience. I’m busy trying to set up a great shot, run around for better framing, and fidgeting with camera settings. However, I don’t believe that it does (for me at least). I notice the details so much better when I’m searching for the perfect spot for the photo. I enjoy the challenge, and the ability to remember the experience better with a photo to trigger the memory. The most important thing for me is to be able to enjoy a moment even when I don’t have my camera. It’s easy to fall into the thought of “oh no, I don’t have my camera and this view is great! What have I done??” Which is silly. Sometimes it’s nice to remove the pressure and just soak it all in without a camera. It’s important to be able to enjoy either experience.
At any rate, I’m very pleased that I had my camera with me for this one.
One magical sunset
As the sun disappeared behind the mountains and the last rays of light shrunk away, we made our way to Astrophotography Night. The park was putting together an evening for star-gazing, complete with telescopes. Randall brought his telescope as well, and it was pretty cool to look at deep space shit. The night was clear but….windy. I had zero success capturing a “night sky landscape”, since the trees wouldn’t stop blowing around. When you’re messing with a shutter speed of 20 seconds or more, that’s quite inexcusable. I also wasn’t smart enough to bring my wide angle lens, which may have resulted in some good night-sky-over-dune shots. I was also not willing to stay up until 2 AM when the milky way would be ideally placed over the dunes. And this is why I’m not that interested in astrophotography. It requires a whole new level of patience, and a whole lot less fear of the dark. I have a deep appreciation for folks with that level of patience and commitment.
I love me some night sky viewing, though! There were a lot of stars. It’s so wonderful sitting under a massive field of tiny light specs. We brought our camp chairs and blankets out by the parking lot, where there was quite the star party going on. Randall attached his camera to the telescope to take some good, deep space photos. He is very into astrophotography, and about a million times more committed to the cause (note aforementioned telescope...). The rest of us relaxed and watched the sky shimmer above.
That’s the thing about dark skies. They aren’t dark. They are bright and light and full of color and depth. It takes patience and calm to really enjoy the view. The eyes take awhile to adjust to the dark, but once they do, the sky is filled with light.
A Very Bad star photo
In the morning, five of us set up to hike a dune. It’s not a complete trip to the Dunes if you don’t get sand in your pants. We chatted casually as we slowly trekked up the mounds closest to the campground. It was nice to begin from a different approach. For some reason Kit and I were talking about how Hera wouldn’t make a very good Dune Cat. We also decided that anything sounds a bit badass if you put the word ‘dune’ in front of it. Hera is….not exactly a badass. We had a great Dune Hike though, then we had a Dune Seat, drank some Dune Water, looked at some Dune Views, and had some Dune Conversation.
So, that’s my story about the Dune Cats, and it barely involved Dune Cats. I’ll leave you with this photo of our decidedly not Dune Cat, but she’s adorable all the same.
What a girl.