Category: Astrophotography Trips

A Visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park And Preserve

Over the holiday period, I decided to travel to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. You see, this particular national park is on my bucket list, specifically, it has always been a bucket list goal of mine to take a picture of the Milky Way with the dunes in the foreground.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is located about 3.5 hours southwest of Denver in rural Alamosa County, Colorado. The park itself is about a 40-minute drive away from the city of Alamosa–making it a great day trip or night trip, or maybe a bit of both.

I stayed there over the July 4th weekend with the hope that I’d be able that desired shot of the Milky Way glowing over the dunes.

Alas, I have to be honest and say that that unfortunately I wasn’t able to get that desired shot (astrophotography teaches you to roll with the punches). However, I still think I got a pretty nice shot all the same within the confines of the park.

P1: The Milky Way as seen from inside Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Sometimes, you have to work with what you have.

While I went there with the hope of braving the dunes at night to get my desired shot, I don’t think I made it 10 feet from my car before the mosquitos were trying to bite me up. I don’t know how, but somehow, I forgot about the mosquitos in June and July and how truly annoying they could be.

Given the bugs, I decided to find a different location to try to see if I could get my shot.

While driving around at night, I parked my vehicle and just decided to use the road into the park as my foreground as I figured it would be a pretty striking visual.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Initially it was stormy, but the weather forecast rang true and it cleared up at about 3am. I waited a bit for the Milky Way to be centered with the road and took the above shot. It’s not a stacked shot, but a single exposure, but I am still proud of it all the same.

I think anyone interested in astrophotography should definitely put this park on their travel list. I have looked all over trying to figure out where these skies fall on the Bortle scale (a scale measuring the brightness of a sky–10 being the worst (lots of light pollution) while 1 is the best (being little to no light pollution), and while I have not seen anything definitive, I have read on some sources online that the park is classified in the Bortle 2 area.

Picture Stats:

P1

Date Taken: July 4, 2021

Canon 5D Mark IV
Rokinon 14mm f/2.8
ISO 3200
Exp. 30s 
White Balance 3200

A Visit to Pawnee National Grasslands

Once I got that first astrophotography picture, I was absolutely hooked. I wanted to go out, wanted to go to different locations, wanted to try to photograph different things, wanted to try to capture as many celestial objects as I could, etc.

I believe I went up to that same location outside Idaho Springs a few times before I decided to try somewhere else. Specifically, I decided to try Pawnee National Grasslands (“PNG”).

Pawnee National Grasslands is located in the northern part of the state–in a very rural area. One of the major points of interest there are the Pawnee Buttes which jut out in what is otherwise mostly plains.

One of the things that fascinates me about Colorado is the range of geography you’ll find in the state. I first visited the mountains in the west for my first serious attempt at astrophotography. My next major attempt would find me in the plains and brush to the north.

The drive out there was super interesting.

It was desolate. I was absolutely glad I wrote down directions because I am pretty sure I lost my phone signal several times while driving. While there were farms dotting the landscape, they were very spread out. As I neared PNG, it got the point where it was just me and the occasional vehicle passing by.

I wish I had taken pictures of the plains area during the drive, because it was beautiful in a rustic way.

When I arrived at the park, there was one other vehicle there that appeared to be prepping to leave the park. When they left, it was literally just me–I didn’t see a single other person there.

Pawnee National Grasslands as the sun was about to set. Taken with my iPhone at the time. I don’t remember the model of the phone.

By the time I arrived, it was twilight and I needed to get moving because I realized after a few attempts in the mountains that it is truly is a pain to set up your gear in the dark and it’s better to do it before the sun sets.

I set up my camera just a a few hundred feet away from my car into the entrance area of the grasslands.

As it got darker, I was in for a quite a show as the stars started to show themselves. As it got darker, I turned on the red headlamp I had purchased in so I could see the buttons on my camera in the dark and also not cause too much disruption to my picture-taking.

The number of stars in the sky was indescribable. I felt like I actually got to see the sky in its true glory that night.

Taken in the parking lot as I was about to leave. Taken with my Canon 1000D.

I took as many pictures as I was able to. I ultimately stopped because…it was still winter and thus very cold. I also heard an animal noise that I could not quite identify. While I had on layers to protect myself from the cold, I didn’t have anything to physically protect myself should I encounter anything in the wild.

Erring on the side of caution I gathered my camera equipment and headed back to my car.

I was out there for about 2 hours or so. Even though I ended my excursion early, I was satisfied with what I could capture.

  • P1: Stars shining brightly in the distance.
  • P2: Light from my red headlamp visible.
  • P3: Starry hill in the distance.
A small subset of the pictures taken that night.

Yet still, there was that feeling that what I saw with my own eyes wasn’t quite translating to what I wanted to capture with my camera. Again, I suspected my camera was pretty dated–it was over 10 years old by this point.

This excursion was the one that motivated me to purchase a more modern camera.

Picture 1 Picture 2Picture 3
ISO: 800
Exposure: 25s
F/0
Lens Mode: Manual
Lens: 18mm-55mm		ISO: 800
Exposure: 30s
F/0
Lens Mode: Manual
Lens: 18mm-55mm		ISO: 1600
Exposure: 20s
F/0
Lens Mode: Manual
Lens: 18mm-55mm
See above if you are interested in the settings used for the pictures above.

Astro Lessons Learned:

  • Research the area that you plan to visit ahead time: Are there certain hours where the area is open? Is there a fee involved? Do you need to obtain a permit ahead of time? Is parking limited? Is parking limited to certain times out of the day?
  • Write down directions for the place you are heading to, research the route ahead of time, and bring a map with you. The best places to see the brightest stars will often be in rural areas with literal dirt roads and possibly poor to no signage. Also, GPS/phone signals may be spotty in these areas.
  • Arrive at least an hour before sunset so you have enough time to find a spot to set up your equipment.
  • Carry multiple layers with you because the weather can turn unpredictable.
  • Carry a red light headlamp or a flashlight with a red light so you have a light source. You don’t want to accidentally step on a rattlesnake in the wild. While you can go with a regular headlamp or flashlight (I did so initially), the bright white light will affect your eyes, your ability to see faint stars, and will be distracting in your photographs.
  • Always let someone know your itinerary!