Great Sand Dunes – in Colorado???

We’ve always been intrigued by the diversity of the geology and ecosystems protected by our national parks. But sometimes you come across something so unique, you just scratch your head and ask why. Why this? Why here? Just why?

When I think of sand dunes, it’s the Oregon coast that comes to mind, certainly not Colorado! Why is there a 30-mile long dune field, with the tallest sand dunes in North America (750 feet!) in the middle of Colorado?? Well, it’s called the “Magnificent Coincidence”. Most of the sand comes from erosion in the San Juan Mountains 65 miles to the north. Prevailing southwesterly winds carried the sand to a shallow bend at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Near the mountains the wind patterns become more complex, blowing the sand back onto itself and forming the dunes. Two seasonal streams wrap around the margins of the dunes depositing sand, which is picked up by the wind and redeposited in the dunes. Pretty wild that just the right circumstances of wind, water and earth conspired to create such a natural wonder!

The Great Sand Dunes.

What was really interesting is that the huge dune field comprises only 11% of a 330-square-mile deposit of sand! The majority is in the sand sheet or grasslands, where plants have anchored the sand. The remaining 36% is a salt-encrusted plain or sabkha (new word 😊). This area has the wetlands, including the San Luis Lakes Wildlife Area where we camped. Where the water table is high, the water repeatedly rises to the surface and then evaporates leaving a white crust of mineral deposits.

The campground is in the sabkha, the dune field is 15 miles away with grasslands between. 

One thing we loved about Great Sand Dunes, it’s both a national park and a preserve so most of the trails are dog friendly! Leashed pets are allowed in the day use area of the park including the play area of the dunes and areas designated as national preserve. The only place they can’t go is the backcountry areas of the national park. Riley is a little ambivalent about this rule change, while he likes to come with us, instead of a leisurely nap and a yummy marrow bone while we hike, he gets drug along. Lol.

Our first day in the park, Riley had it easy. We stopped in the Dune play area, but it was warm and sunny and Riley was most interested in finding some cool sand in the shade. 😊

The dune play area. You can rent sand sleds and sandboards too.

Riley much preferred the shady bits. Lol.

Then we drove the 4-WD Medano Pass Primitive Road as far as the Sand Pit. We found a picnic area where we could walk to a section of the Medano Creek that still had a little water. Then we hiked up onto the dunes.  Since there was no one else around, Riley got to go off-leash and do his crazy dog runabout.

Looking regal.
But only for a quick minute. Lol.

Just a little bit of water left in Medano Creek. 

Not so regal looking chasing Daddy up the dunes. 

Patterns in the sand. 

We were happy with how well the Acadia handled the soft sand. We opted not to go all the way to Medano Pass, since we didn’t have the ground clearance for rocky stretches. It’s easier to get stuck than you think, on our way to the park a young guy flagged us down and asked for help. He’d driven just a little way off the paved road and gotten stuck. We were able to give him a tow out – yay for 4WD.

Props to the Acadia and 4WD. 

We did the Mosca Pass Trail on Saturday morning with Riley. You’d think by now I would have figured out that any trail with the word “Pass” in its name is going to go straight up. Lol. The trail started off through the aspens, crossed Mosca Creek, and then quickly climbed into pine forest and further up along a rocky ridge. The whole trail is 7-miles roundtrip, but Riley insisted on a much more manageable 2-mile hike. I didn’t argue (at all). 😊

A gentle path along the creek is what I was expecting.

Should have known better with "Pass" in the trail name. Lol. 

Riley gets a drink.

Anyone know what this is?
It's white fuzzy filaments glowed in the sunlight.

Almost done, you can see the dunes in the background.

After lunch back at the coach and a little time to relax, Rog and I headed back into the park for the hike I’d most been looking forward to. The climb to the top of High Dune is about 2.5 miles roundtrip. There is no trail, you just follow the dunes choosing a path that looks doable. Now, let’s talk for a minute about the dubious wisdom of saving the most strenuous hike on the dunes for what turned out to be the windiest day of our stay. And what idiot would deliberately choose late afternoon, by far the windiest time of day. Well, an idiot who wanted sunset pictures from High Dune. (Sheepishly raises hand, that would be me.) We trudged across the dune play area; at the base it was breezy but nothing to worry about. HOWEVER, the higher we got the stronger the wind.

This is where we're headed, 650' up to High Dune.

Tracks in the soft sand.

About half way there... still smiling. :) 

We've come a long way baby... but we're not there yet!

A pause for some shadow play.

Slogging through deep, soft sand is no picnic. On the steep dunes it’s one foot forward, slide six inches back. By the time we were nearing the top, the wind was howling so fiercely it was difficult to stand upright! The sand was blowing so hard you could hardly see, and it felt like every bit of exposed skin was being flayed. If this is nature’s exfoliant, I’ll skip the spa treatment thank you very much. I tried taking pictures with my back to the wind, but there was so much grit and sand blowing my camera started to malfunction. Arrrrrgh. It was so crazy Rog had to hold onto me so I could stand upright to get a few shots.  In the short breaks between gale force gusts, we took what pictures we could and decided our original plan to hang out at the top of High Dune until sunset was clearly insane.

So much sand in the air it actually made the photo look out of focus!

Rog's pano from High Dune.

Selfie at the top!

High Dune ridge-line.

The dune field stretches out for 30 miles!

Can you see the sand blowing?

The wind made the dunes look fuzzy.

The trip down was a lot quicker and a lot more fun. Just pick a steep dune and start down, the sand would slide around you like water. My shoes filled with so much sand there wasn’t room for my feet! We had to stop more than once to dump them out. Back at the car, we shook out as much sand as we could, but no doubt we’ll be finding sand and grit in unwelcome places for some time to come. Lol.

It felt like I brought half the dune with me!

Back down at the bottom and we're getting some evening shadows.
The air is a lot calmer here!

We found a good spot to watch the sunset and were happy to be off the High Dune. It was an adventure! But next time we go in the morning when the winds are calmer!!

Evening light over the dunes.

Final shot of the dunes and the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Our next destination is a boondocking spot in the Carson National Forest about 30 miles from Taos, NM. Unfortunately, the winds we experienced on High Dune weren’t an anomaly. The next three days are calling for sustained winds of 20-30 mph with gusts up to 40. We’ll try for an early start, so we can be off the road before things get really hairy in the afternoon. Yep, learned that lesson. Lol.

White Star and San Luis Lakes

Rog is getting pretty good at picking places on the fly. The National Forest campground that we’d slotted into our spreadsheet had already closed for the season, so Rog came up with a pretty spectacular Plan B. White Star is a National Forest campground situated on Twin Lakes. We arrived on Sunday, 9/22, and snagged a spot in the loop closest to the lake.

Not too shabby for a Plan B. 

We had water for Riley, hiking and mountain bike trails, and some of the best views of any campground we’ve stayed in.

Twin Lakes.

View of Mt. Elbert from the campground.

Rog did the 14-mile Twin Lakes loop on his mountain bike. He said it was probably the best ride he’s done on this trip. Hands down it certainly had the best scenery! He was especially impressed by the aspens in their fall finery. I love the pictures he took!

Twin Lakes Trail.

Mt. Elbert on the left, Mt. Massive on the right...

... pretty everywhere you look!

The aspens were so gorgeous.

The trail wound through mature aspen groves along the lake.

A tunnel of gold.

He also got to explore the Inter-Laken Historical Site across the lake from the campground. In the 1800’s millionaire James Dexter bought a small hotel on the shores of Twin Lakes with the vision of turning it into a world-class resort. He built a summer house for his family, added over 2000 acres to the property, and set about upgrading and adding onto the resort. It offered relative luxury in a rustic mountain setting. Wealthy guests could play billiards or cards, ride horses, enjoy a picnic on the property or take out a canoe or rowboat. Or, if so inclined, they could take a cruise on the 50’ steamboat or the 30’ yacht. However in 1897, the Twin Lakes Reservoir Company dammed the lower lake for agriculture flooding the road and bridge to the resort. It never fully recovered and eventually fell to ruin.

In the 1970’s the Bureau of Reclamation built a new dam that would totally flood the resort. Archaeologists combed the area for artifacts and the buildings remaining today were moved 150’ to protect them from flooding. The site is being restored by volunteers. It is pretty cool, you can wander the property and even go inside the Dexter summer house and see the restoration in progress.

The Dexter summer home (top left) and restored buildings from the 1800's Inter-Laken Resort.

Excellent restoration work - check out the detail in those moldings. Wow.

While Rog was pedaling his heart out, Riley and I spent the day hiking, playing in the lake, and trying out the hammock. Which would you rather do? Lol.

Riley does crazy dog after a dip in the lake.

This is the life!

Our next stop was the San Luis Lakes State Wildlife Area about 15 miles west of Great Sand Dunes National Park. San Luis Lakes used to be a state park and has a large campground with 51 sites. Since it was designated a wildlife area all you need is a $43 annual permit and you can camp up to 14 days. What a sweetheart deal! We arrived on Wednesday, 9/25, with plans to stay 4 nights and use it as a base to see Great Sand Dunes. We chose a huge pull-through site right next to a small dry lakebed – a perfect spot for Riley to play ball. The sunsets were amazing, and we enjoyed watching a huge thunder and lightning storm cross the valley, just missing us. 😊

Sunset at our spot on San Luis Lakes.

Riley waits patiently for just a little more ball time!

Incoming!
Thought we were going to get wet, but it just missed us.

San Luis Lakes is an important stop for migratory waterfowl, huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes stop here on their spring and fall migrations, although we missed the nesting time between February and July.  The area is an interesting part of the local ecology, climb a short hill and you can get a view across the lake of the Great Sand Dunes. Desert, grasslands, water….more on that in the next post with pictures from our visit to the dunes.

View from the campground across San Luis Lake.
The Great Sand Dunes are at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

On Friday, 9/27, we took Riley on a hike to Zapata Falls about 8 miles north of the national park. The trail to the falls is only about a half-mile but it’s rocky and (of course) uphill. The falls are hidden in a cleft and the fun part is that you have to wade through the creek to get to them. Now that’s something Riley was up for. Lol.

Zapata Falls.

The fun part of the hike, wading the creek.

Zapata Creek.

A break on the way back to the car.

Stay tuned for our next post with pictures of the dunes and our death-defying slog to the top of High Dune in gale force winds. Lol.