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<br />000161 <br /> <br />SUMMARY OF THE <br />PRELIMINARY WILDERNESS PROPOSAL <br /> <br />GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL MONUMENT <br /> <br />Location <br />Great Sand Dunes National Monument is located 50 miles north of the <br />New Mexico border and 38 miles northeast of Alamosa, in Saguache <br />and Alamosa Counties in south-central Colorado. <br /> <br />Surroundings <br />The monument is bordered on the east and partly bordered on the <br />north by the Rio Grande National Forest, which is primarily <br />recreation-oriented. Lands to the south and west are owned or leased <br />by large cattle ranchers. <br /> <br />g <br /> <br />Within a 300-mile radius are 14 national forests, one national park, <br />seven national monuments, and other scenic and recreational facilities. <br />Within a radius of 100 miles are four U.S. Forest Service wilderness and <br />primitive areas comprising a total of about 400,000 acres. <br /> <br />Resources <br />Piled for miles against the base of the forested and snowcapped Sangre <br />de Cristo Range, the spectacular, ever-changing dunes rise nearly 700 <br />feet from their base on the floor of the San Luis Valley, and average <br />8,200 feet in elevation. They present an intriguing foreground for the <br />towering 14,OOO-foot Sangre de Cristos. <br />