These massive dunes of red-tinted sand are a quite the geologic coincidence. It may not be terribly obvious to people who have spent time around “normal” quartz sand dunes that those in Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park are not the same color, but they are. The pink hued sand here is fairly typical of northern Arizona and Southern Utah, but it is normally not collected into towering dunes.

Sand dunes do not just anywhere is a desert landscape. Certain phenomena have to coincide in order to collect such a massive collection of sand. The first ingredient in the creation of dunes is the sand, obviously. Wind and water erode the red cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, producing the coral pink sand found throughout the region. Sand is usually carried by forceful prevailing winds, but winds are not particularly strong here. Wind gets funneled through a gap between the Mocassin and Moquith Moutains, increasing wind velocity and carrying capacity. As the wind slows on the downwind side, sand grains are deposited and have nowhere to go.

The park is an off-roaders playground. Ninety percent of the dunes are open to off-highway vehicles, so stay vigilant if you are hiking the dunes.

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