The Great Sand Dunes

My parents invited us to go camping with them at the sand dunes in southern Colorado.  Neither of us had been down to the dunes in decades, and we’ve been wanting to go camping, so of course we took them up on their offer.  We decided to spend three days down at the dunes and then a couple days in Colorado Springs on the way back (to get in some extra hiking in the COS area).

 

 

 

We packed the Hummer with all of our gear on Thursday night.  I had just bought a new topper for the Hummer, and we filled it up.  This was our first camping trip in a couple years, so were trying to remember all of the little details that are second nature when you camp a lot.  We tend to be a bit over prepared, but we rarely need something we didn’t bring.

On Friday morning we got going. We decided to bring Shy-Anne with us and kennel the other two, so we dropped them off when the kennel opened at 8am and then hit the highway for the long drive south.

When we got to Colorado Springs, we stopped off at the north Wal-Mart to get some bottled water and load our cooler up with ice.  Since we were stopped, I decided to top up with gas, and while we were stopped Stacie decided we needed to stop in at REI to check out some sandals for the dunes.  After buying two pairs of sandals we figured we might as well get an early lunch since we had already spent so much down time.

Eventually we got back on the road and drove for several more hours to Walsenburg.  I topped off the tank again and then we drove west toward the dunes.

The Sangre de Cristo mountains are a really different look than the Front Range we are used too.  The mountains somehow seem steeper, more rugged, maybe due to their fault block formation vs. the Front Range uplift formation.

The route to the dunes goes west out of Walsenburg and through De Veta pass, crossing the Sangre de Cristos into the San Lous valley.  Along the way we got to see some impressive mountains, including Blanca Peak.

Eventually we turned north again, and after a while we got our first look at the dunes rising in front of us.

We finally arrived at the dunes and pulled in to the campground at 3pm.  My parents had gotten in a little before lunch time and gotten a spot on the south side of the lower loop.

After relaxing for a little while we decided to walk down to see the Point of No Return.  We took the dunes trail to Medano Pass Primitive Road and then walked down the road to the Point of No Return. 

 

When we got back to camp I set up our tent and we relaxed for a while before making dinner.  The wind picked up right before we started cooking, so we had a difficult time until Dad rigged up a wind screen with the boards out of the back of their truck.  It turned out that the wind would pick up every evening during the time we wanted to cook dinner, so we got a lot of use out of this little wind screen.

After dinner, Mom and Dad went down to the amphitheater for the evening’s program and Stacie and I took Shy-Anne for a hike on the dunes.

We set out for the dunes at about 7:45pm. The sun was already getting low, so we brought along our headlamps because we were planning on being out for several hours.

The dunes are deceptively far away from the camp ground.  They are so huge, dominating the horizon, that they seem to be just a short walk away.  In reality it was almost a mile before we started climbing up the first real dune.

Shy-Anne absolutely loved the dunes.  With her paws opened up as wide as possible she could run along the sand without sinking in. We, on the other hand, sunk in anywhere from two to six inches with every step.

The sky quickly faded from dusk to full dark, and the only light we had was from our headlamps.  The sand dunes are naturally sharp edged, and without the light from the sun every edge looked like a huge cliff.  Shy-Anne’s night vision was much sharper than ours, so she was constantly scaring us by jumping off these ‘cliffs’ and disappearing over the edge.  Every time it turned out she was just slightly downhill on the back side of the dune, but it still freaked us out every time.

By 9pm we had climbed up to the top of the first row of dunes (the ones you can see from the camp ground).  We had forgotten how difficult climbing the dunes really was, and it was a bit intimidating being out in full darkness, so we decided to turn back.

The trip back down was the real reason we climbed up to begin with; it’s incredible fun to run down the steep slopes.  You move fast and take huge strides; each step you sink deeply into the sand and it prevents you from loosing control and falling over.  We were able to run down some long 60 degree slopes, which in the darkness felt almost like free fall.  Of course, Shy-Anne loved it too, mainly because we were finally moving at here speed.

When we got back down to the bottom of the dunes we took our sandals off and enjoyed the last bit of warmth from the sand as we headed back to camp.

The next morning, we were up bright and early to a very chilly morning.  Mom cooked us an omelet and then we aired down the Hummer’s tires and headed up Medano Pass Primitive Road (read all about our four wheeling here).  Just before the top of the pass we turned off to the Medano Lake trailhead, where we parked and hiked Medano Lake Trail (read about our hike here).  We got back to the Hummer at about 3:30, and then drove on down the pass back to the dunes and camp.  We got back in to camp two hours later, just in time to make dinner.

After dinner the four of us went over to the amphitheater for the evening’s program, which was all about the horned and antlered animals in the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We learned about the difference between horns and antlers and which animals of each type we might see in the park.  The ranger had an example of a horn/antler from each animal that he passed around so we could see and handle them.  We saw antlers from deer and elk, and horns from pronghorn (antelope), bison and big horn sheep.

After the program we went back to camp and started a campfire.  It was starting to get pretty chilly, and shortly after I started the fire the group of young college kids camping next to us asked to come over and warm up at the fire.  They only stayed for a short while, but we kept the fire going for a couple hours, and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and made smores.

That night was very cold; it got down into the upper 30s in the early hours of the morning.  It was cold enough that Shy-Anne was shivering down on her bed, so we let her lay on top of our sleeping bag and put a blanket over her.

When we got up in the morning it was 43 degrees.  We got breakfast going as fast as possible so that we could enjoy some warm food.  After we ate, we packed up the camp.  I rolled up our sleeping bags, deflated the air mattress, took down the tent, and stored it all back in the Hummer.  That was followed by our cooler, food box, backpacks, and all of the junk that had accumulated in the cab over the last couple days.  Once we were all packed, we aired down the tires again and all four of us (plus Shy-Anne) got in the Hummer and went down to the Castle Creek picnic area.

We wanted to go to Castle Creek because Medano Creek was not flowing at part of the dunes closer to the camp site, and we really wanted to play in the water as well as the sand.  Castle Creek is past the Point of No Return and through a section of deep, soft sand, but we had driven it the day before so I knew what to expect and we made it without any drama.

When we arrived we did find water flowing, although it was only a couple inches deep. 

 

 

 

We had a lot of fun throwing Shy-Anne's ball for her to chase.

Stacie and I climbed up to the top of the short dune at the north end of the area where the creek takes a sharp curve.  From the top we had a great view of Mt Herard, and we saw some interesting tracks in the sand.  The back side of the dune was one the steepest one we saw all weekend (the farther north you go in the park the steeper the dunes are).  We ran down the back side of the dune and then went back to where my parents were waiting by walking through the stream.

When we got back we decided we had had enough fun and it was time to go.  We drove back to the campground for my parent's truck, and then headed out of the park.  On the way out we stopped at the visitor center to check out the exhibits and get one last view of the dunes.

View all of the pictures: Photo Gallery