Great Sand Dunes's National Park Birth Card: The King of Hearts

How the card is assigned

Great Sand Dunes National Park (Colorado) became a National Park on September 24, 2004. Card Blueprints uses September 24 — month and day only — and the public D1 birth-card rule (December 31 is the Joker). The year 2004 is unused.

Coordinate: the King of Hearts. Live card page (Next.js origin): /birth-card/king-of-hearts.

Parks that share September 24

No other current National Park shares this month and day on the Wikipedia list.

Other parks on the King of Hearts

• Capitol Reef — King of Hearts

Great Sand Dunes on the record

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a national park of the United States that conserves an area of large sand dunes on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in south-central Colorado. The park was originally designated Great Sand Dunes National Monument on March 17, 1932, by President Herbert Hoover. The original boundaries protected an area of 35,528 acres (55.5 sq mi; 143.8 km2). A boundary change and redesignation as a national park and preserve was authorized on November 22, 2000, and then established on September 24, 2004. The park encompasses 107,342 acres (167.7 sq mi; 434.4 km2) while the preserve protects an additional 41,686 acres (65.1 sq mi; 168.7 km2) for a total of 149,028 acres (232.9 sq mi; 603.1 km2). The recreational visitor total was 527,546 in 2019. The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America, up to 750 feet (230 m) tall. The dunes cover an area of about 30 sq mi (78 km2) and are estimated to contain over 1.2 cubic miles (5 billion cubic metres) of sand. Sediments from the surrounding mountains filled the valley over geologic time periods. After lakes within the valley receded, exposed sand was blown by the predominant southwest winds toward the Sangre de Cristos, eventually forming the dune field over an estimated tens of thousands of years. The four primary components of the Great Sand Dunes system are the mountain watershed, the dune field, the sand sheet, and the sabkha. Ecosystems within the mountain watershed include alpine tundra, subalpine forests, montane woodlands, and riparian zones.

Summarised from the lead section of the Wikipedia article Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (CC BY-SA 4.0). Nothing here was written for this page beyond that article. National Park establishment dates come from the Wikipedia list column and NPS Park Anniversaries, not from this article.

FAQ

What date does Great Sand Dunes use?

September 24, 2004 — Wikipedia’s Date established as park. Month and day assign the card; the year is unused.

What is Great Sand Dunes's National Park birth card?

The King of Hearts. That is a coordinate on the Card Blueprints calendar, not a fortune-telling claim about the park.

Where do the dates come from?

Primary: Wikipedia List of national parks of the United States, Date established as park. Footnotes: NPS Park Anniversaries. NPS Park Anniversaries lists Great Sand Dunes National Monument (1932-03-17) as an earlier first-unit record. That date is cited, not mapped.

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