If you do make the trip out to Great Sand Dunes, there are a couple of other interesting (?) roadside attractions in the vicinity: The Colorado Gators Reptile Park and the UFO Watchtower.
Yeah, we did that on one of our trips there when I was a kid–it was really beautiful!
As a scout, we would camp at Hammock Beach State Park in North Carolina. It’s one of the few undeveloped barrier islands left on the Atlantic coast.
As far as Great Sand Dunes National Park goes, don’t pay by cheque (the dummies tried to cash it at a train station rather than a bank, so when the train station refused to cash it I was prosecuted in absentia), and if you happen upon green corduory pants in a tree, please mail them to me.
We have three separate and very remote dune complexes on our Colorado ranch and yes, a day spent exploring them and enjoying their solitude is quite relaxing and cathartic. The sedimentary structures, rugged flora and seldom seen fauna they support are astounding, snakes, badgers, etc. You might be surprised to know that in some places they were preferred by the Native American population as places to camp. Ours have yielded a large number of arrowheads and other artifacts over the years, especially after periods of intense wind.
The ***North ***Algodones Dunes at the southeastern corner of California aren’t all that spectacular, and they’re right next to the ORV madhouse that is Glamis. But I’ve spent some time out there and solitude is definitely achievable. One thing that makes Algodones Dunes worth visiting is that they have a small section of the old Plank Road “preserved” just south of I-8.