The "Rocky Mountain Serengeti."

According to a Nationalgeographic.com, that's what some call
the area south of the Great Sand Dunes.

We've never been to Africa.

But this is what the San Luis Valley looks like, 
from the Sand Dunes along the Sangre de Cristo Mts in in the north-eastern corner, 
looking towards the San Juan Mountains and the Continental Divide, about 74 miles to the west.

Maybe it's a little barren.

Occasionally, a small grove of trees.

And the fog in the distance sure can give it an exotic look.

Here you don't often see many big animals.
But one night we did.

Three years ago, driving from the Alamosa airport to the cabin at nearly 1 AM,
in -8 degrees, the reflecting headlights off the falling snow limited visibility.

A rabbit hopped front of us and the son-in-law asked if we were likely to hit any animals on this stretch of highway. 
I said I had never seen anything that would cause us any damage.
Just then a deer crossed right in front of us. 
And within five minutes, a really big elk hopped by, jumping higher than the car's hood. 
Next a huge cougar, with muscles you would not believe!

So maybe they are right, this is a little like the Serengeti.