Wednesday June 12 2024
Wednesday June 12
Big day today – woke early had breakfast then got on the
road for our day trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The park was a
little over 1 hour west of Lathrop, but
the scenery was spectacular and the drive flew by. The Great Dunes lay nestled
at the base of the Sangre del Cristo mountains in a unique environment that
allows the dunes to persist year after year, century after century. The
elevation is over 8,000 feet ASL and the tallest dunes tower 750 feet above the
surrounding area and cover over 30 square miles.
We stopped first at the lovely visitor center and picked up
a map of the dunes to help us decide where to go. There are a few trailhead
parking spots but we went to the main parking just below the visitor center.
Surprisingly, you have to wade across a very wide (200 meters) stream to access
the dunes. The stream was only a few inches deep and reminded me of wading in
the water along a nice sandy beach. The water was quite warm. We were warned at
the visitor center that the sand on the dunes can get very hot and in the
afternoons can be up to 140 degrees F. Luckily we arrived early (9:30) and the
sand was still cool – plus it had rained the day before.
Well, the dunes are very impressive. The scale is so
immense that people up on the dunes look like ants. We set off up and soon
found a nice pathway to follow along the serpentine ridges crafted by the ever
changing winds. We climbed and climbed, took lots of pictures, watched people
sliding down on sand boards and flying saucers. Nobody really got going very
fast but it looked like fun.
We finally clawed our way to the top of one of the highest,
if not the highest dune. Not too many souls made it all the way up, especially
those with kids. We enjoyed the amazing view from the summit, with the dune
field spread out in front of us and the majestic peaks of the Sangre Del Cristo
Mountains – really breathtaking.
After resting on top and chatting with a couple from
Tennessee, we made our way back down. We actually charged down the hills (quite
steep)…I pretended I was skiing. It took a matter of minutes to undo all the
effort of climbing and before we knew it we were down, with shoes very full of
sand. In all we spent about 3 hours in the dunes – a very fun morning in a
surreal setting. After emptying our shoes and wading back across the stream, we
made our way back to the car and up to the visitor center to check out a video
that we had put off in the morning.
As it was only early afternoon, we drove a little further
west to the town of Alamosa where we enjoyed some afternoon refreshments.
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| Dunes |
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| Trekking up |
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| Ridgeline to follow |
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| Contrasting dunes |
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| Good day for a sunhat |
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| 30 square miles of dunes |
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| Dunes scape from the park road |
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