The America's National Parks Podcast is sponsored by L.L. Bean.

This year, L.Bine is joining up with the National Park Foundation,

the official non-profit partner of the National Park Service to help you find your happy place in an amazing system of more than 400 national parks

including historic and cultural sites,

monuments, preserves, lakeshores, and seashores

that dot the American landscape,

many of which you'll find just a short trip from home.

L.L. Bean is proud to be an official partner of the National Park Foundation.

Discover your perfect day in a park at find your park.com. And the One of the world's great natural wonders rises from the heart of New Mexico's Tula Rosa Basin.

Great waving dunes of baby powder-like gypsum sand

engulf 275 square miles of desert.

Towering mountains ring the spectacular white dunes, crowned with electric blue skies, prismatic sunsets, and

mystic moonlit nights. Half a million visitors from all over the world enjoy this beautiful place each year.

It's featured prominently in commercials, films, fashion catalogs, and music videos.

And its neighboring military base has been host to some important events in American history. On this episode of America's National Parks, three short stories from the glistening dunes after sunset, searching for her lost love.

Here's Abigail Trebew. In 1540, Spanish conquistadors were in search of national treasures.

Francisco Coronado was one of the most successful of these explorers,

and he approached the valiant young

Hernando de Luna from Mexico City

to join him on his quest for new adventures

and rumors of unearthed treasures.

Hernandez had just proposed to Manuela, a beautiful Spanish maiden.

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