NPS Photo by Patrick Myers. Woman carving a turn at Castle Creek Picnic Area. Sandboarding, sledding, or skiing on sand can be enjoyable - but only with the right gear and conditions.
Where can you rent a sandboard? One place locally is at Kristi Mountain Sports, located in the Villa Mall in West Alamosa. This business is known as the “specialists in human and gravity powered sports.” Owner, Eric Burt, said that “a small group from Adams State College came and rented the boards for their trip to the Dunes and they had a blast.”
These boards are designed differently from snowboards and rent for $18 per board per day and they have 7 boards available. They also have 2 sleds and a staff member said, “the people that rented the sleds said they had just has much fun on them as they did on the boards.” The sleds are the same rental fee.
Cardboard doesn’t work! Sandboarding, sledding, and skiing are permitted anywhere on the dunefield. From the main visitor parking area, it's a minimum 2/3 mile hike to get to the medium sized slopes. Have a great time enjoying this unique national treasure!
In April, 2010's edition of Oxygen Magazine, Stefani Jackenthal writes about sandboarding at the Sand Dunes. The article is located on page 132, and is titled "Total Body Fitness." Local sandboarder and fitness enthusiast, Chelsea Vittoria, is quoted in the article as saying, "You think you're in good shape and then you hit the dunes! But it's so much fun and easier than snowboarding beacuse the boards are smaller and thinner, making them easy to turn - and the sand's so smooth."
