Wikimedia Commons

File:Alpenglow, Mount Herard Above Dunes (27234785489).jpg

Original file ‎(4,608 × 3,456 pixels, file size: 1.37 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary

edit
Description

NPS/Patrick Myers

Though it's been a dry winter season so far, the mountains have been blanketed with snow a few times. At moments like the one in this photo, the reason for the historical name of this mountain range becomes apparent. At evening, sunlight shifts toward red on the color spectrum as it shines across atmospheric haze in this vast valley. Early explorers, moved by this phenomenon, gave these mountains a unique name: "Sangre de Cristo" - the Blood of Christ.

These mountains are also unique in that they rise dramatically from the desert valley floor to over 14,000 feet (4267m). Beyond being a stunning visual backdrop to the dunes, the Sangre de Cristos are an important geological barrier to form the dunefield, and a setting for multiple ecosystems with incredible biological diversity.

Great Sand Dunes National Preserve protects the portion of this range that is the dunes' snowy watershed, the source of refreshing streams that wrap around the dunefield each spring!

  1. greatsanddunes #dunes #sand #desert #alpenglow #biodiversity #biologicaldiversity #geology #sangredecristo #bloodofchrist #sunset #sangredecristomountains #sangredecristorange #findyourpark #encuentratuparque
Date
Source Alpenglow, Mount Herard Above Dunes
Author Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Licensing

edit
Public domain This image or media file contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain in the United States. See the NPS website and NPS copyright policy for more information.


This image was originally posted to Flickr by Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve at https://flickr.com/photos/94707653@N06/27234785489. It was reviewed on 1 January 2022 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the Public Domain Mark.

1 January 2022

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current11:56, 4 October 2021Thumbnail for version as of 11:56, 4 October 20214,608 × 3,456 (1.37 MB)Ltn12345 (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

You cannot overwrite this file.

There are no pages that use this file.

Metadata

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Alpenglow,_Mount_Herard_Above_Dunes_(27234785489).jpg&oldid=886010594"