Eureka Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California
"Our party debated long and hard about making the trek to the Eureka Dunes, a remote area of Death Valley added to the national park in 1994. Everything we read suggested that we should make the trek: steep “booming” dunes rising 700 feet above the valley floor, some of the largest in North America! On the downside, getting to the dunes involve along off-road drive and mountain passes, entailing at least two hours each way. Because the Eureka dunes are seldom shown in photographs, we also questioned whether they would be “photogenic” compared to the to the dramatic dune fields at Mesquite Flat. Our decision to make the excursion proved to be the right one, but little did we know what was in store for the day. Approaching the Eureka Dunes, we noticed how the sand appeared to arise from nowhere in an extremely flat desert area with sparse vegetation. With the stark Last Chance and Saline Mountain Ranges as a backdrop, there appeared to be a simple configuration of small scale sand dunes. Closer up, the enormous land mass and height of the dunes became more evident."
