Visitation · National Park & Preserve

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve visitation by month and year

June is the busiest month at Great Sand Dunes, when the average temperature nearby is 63 degrees. January is the quietest, and the average temperature then is 22 degrees. An average June draws 94,559 visits where an average January draws 5,413. The crowd arrives with the warm weather and leaves with it. Annual visits fell 18.0 percent, from 527,546 in 2019 to 432,498 in 2025.

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Visits by month, with temperature and precipitation

Bars are the average recreation visits in each month over 2021 to 2025. The line is the average temperature at Great Sand Dunes NP & Preserve, 6 miles from the park's reference point at 8,183 feet, station USC00053541 in the NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals. The lower panel is monthly rain and snow from the same station, also 1991 to 2020 averages.

Annual visits, 1979 to 2025

Recreation visits per calendar year. A year with a missing month is left blank rather than estimated.

The last ten years

Year	Recreation visits	Change on prior year
2025	432,498	-1.2%
2024	437,661	-14.6%
2023	512,219	+3.8%
2022	493,428	-18.1%
2021	602,613	+30.6%
2020	461,532	-12.5%
2019	527,546	+19.1%
2018	442,905	-9.0%
2017	486,935	+25.4%
2016	388,308	+29.6%

Visitation at other parks

Rocky Mountain National Park Curecanti National Recreation Area New River Gorge National Park & Preserve Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Source: NPS Visitor Use Statistics, monthly recreation visits, as compiled for Publicopia Labs. A year is shown only when all twelve months were reported. Temperature, precipitation and snowfall normals are the 1991 to 2020 monthly averages published by NOAA NCEI for station USC00053541, 8,183 feet above sea level. Data refreshed October 14, 2026.