My partner and I are planning a road trip up from the swampy southern US to CO in early August, and are considering camping out at Great Sand Dunes National Park for a night or two.

Anyone have experience camping out at GSDNP in mid-late summer? I’ve read online that that sand temperatures can burn your feet during the day, mosquitoes will eat you up, and the wind will fill your tent with sand. We’re wanting to experience something very different from the camping opportunities more local to us, but not sure if these are challenges we can overcome with the right gear/planning, if they’re overblown compared to what we’re used to (dry heat vs 100% humidity and mosquitoes being a constant presence our entire lives), or if we would just end up miserable and potentially cut the trip short.

Is a canopy tent a good idea for shade, or just a wind sail that we won’t be able to secure well enough to loose sand? Similarly would you bring special tent stakes for sand? Where we typically camp in wooded areas, there’s generally not enough wind to even need tent stakes.

We would want to do some hiking, but aren’t equipped well enough for real backpacking. We’d be tent camping out of the car, with supplies enough for a week long road trip already.

We’ll need to get camping permits very soon if we do stay there, so I’m hoping to gather some insight from other’s experiences to make an informed decision now.