Great Sand Dunes National Monument

Recently we were able to take a quick weekend getaway to a place we've wanted to visit for a long time, the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. It's amazing to think there is a whole field of dunes in the mountainous state of Colorado so we had to check it out for ourselves! We drove down on Saturday and decided to take the 4-wheel-drive road over Medano Pass and spend the night at the top. Steven was able to get a fun 4WD fix and we had a fantastic camping spot that night with breathtaking views. No sight of the dunes yet but worth the drive on its own. Steven rigged up a great tarp system over the truck bed so we were able to sleep in the back of the truck and be protected from the thunderstorms that came through several times during the night. There were signs everywhere warning about bear encounters so we were a little skittish about being so far out in the wilderness; it didn't help that we heard a suspicious, wild animal sound in the dark that freaked us out for a while. Eventually, though, we calmed down and enjoyed a good night's sleep listening to the rain. :)

Sunday we woke up early to beautiful, sunny weather and happily, unmolested by any bears. Roxy was thrilled to have so much open space to run around off the leash. Steven was able to use his new favorite toy, the Jetboil, to make us coffee (we also used it the night before to heat up our soup). We first learned of this amazing product when we were camping with our two friends during the Kokopelli Bike Trip and knew we had to get one for ourselves. It makes heating water the easiest and fastest thing on the planet, and it's very compact.

When we started driving down the other side of the Pass, we found out there was a huge mudhole that a big Ford truck had gotten stuck in the night before (we heard from another camper that the truck owner had to pay $900 to have his truck towed out of the hole--ouch!). So we had to figure out if we could get around it or if we'd have to drive back the other way and take the main road to the dunes. Thankfully Steven is a very confident and able driver and easily made his way around the hole. Further down, Roxy decided she wanted to ride in the truck bed and found a new vantage point, looking over the top of the cab. Super cute! After many creek crossings, some as high as the top of the tires, we suddenly came out onto a sandy road. It felt like we had suddenly landed on a beach road somewhere, and around the next bend was our first glimpse of a huge sand dune. It was so surreal to have been on a mountaintop, surrounded by many more mountains, and then all of a sudden be looking at an enormous dune. As we got further along, you could see that the dunes are surrounded on 3 sides by huge mountain ranges. It's amazing to think of how and when these dunes were formed and I have to wonder why it hasn't happened in any other areas in the state, or in any other mountainous states?

Steven wanted to climb one of the dunes but I wasn't sure I'd make it the whole way. So we parked the truck and all of us made it to a point about halfway up, then Steven continued over the top while I took Roxy and went back down. The sand was starting to get really hot and Roxy was glad to get down to the stream that runs along the edge of the dunes. Even just getting to the point that I did, you could see sand for a long ways, and Steven got some great photos of endless dunes seen from the top. Because of the rain the night before there were some hardpacked areas of sand that were easier to walk on, but for the most part it was as difficult to get up there as you would think. It was worth it, though, to say we had climbed up one of the dunes (at least part of the way, in my case). There was a wonderful dead tree in the field below the dune we climbed; up against the blue sky and white clouds it just looked magnificent.

At the bottom of the dunes is a wide, flat area almost like a beach, where water flows from under the dunes. It's very warm and moves pretty quickly, even producing some small waves; one person told us it's called "antidunes". Roxy had so much fun running around chasing other dogs and getting wet all over. The huge expanse of dunes is right in front of you as you're playing in the water, and on all other sides you can see the high mountains full of trees and rocks, just adding to the surreal effect. Beautiful!

Our last stop was at a waterfall Steven had read about. You get a really great view of the entire sand dunes area from the parking lot; it made us realize just how little of them we actually saw from the bottom, or even from the dune that Steven climbed on the edge of the park. The water at the falls was absolutely freezing but you had to climb through it to get to the "real" waterfall. Steven braved the frigid temps and got some pictures so I could see it, too. His feet were red and ice cold when he got down! Just as we were coming back to the truck it started to rain. I'm so glad we got to see and do all that we did and have nice weather when it counted!