Mica Basin, Colorado //
Mount Zirkel Wilderness, Colorado / The trickle of a small stream is probably one of the most popular white noises, used for everything from meditation to massage to pre-takeoff airline videos. Personally, I've always preferred the roar of a rushing river. To sit on a rock--as close as I can get to a tumbling fall or a grand rapid--and be surrounded by the chorus of a trillion water droplets, each with its own trajectory as it splashes down the mountain slope. To fill my ears with the noise of it all, to fill my head with awe at it all. And to think of how this river making me feel so much awe is just one of millions, just a tiny fraction of the earth's collective river system, all flowing into one other in their tireless journey to the sea.
Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO // A view from south reveals the diverse geology and ecology protected by Colorado's Great Sand Dunes National Park. Up to 750 feet high and covering 30 square miles of land at the base of the craggy Sange de Cristo range, these dunes are the tallest in North America. Their towering height is obvious when you're out in their heart, where the shifting hills block out everything but sand and sky, and you might as well be in the Sahara or the Rub'al-Khali. Yet despite the fluidity of sand dunes, opposing winds keep them surprisingly stable: the tallest dunes are still in the same places they were 100 years ago.
