After checking and rechecking the weather and being a little paranoid about ice and slippery roads, we left Santa Fe and headed to Colorado. We landed in Alamosa, the nearest town to Great Sand Dunes National Park. We were rewarded with sunny skies and reasonably warm temps to explore the dunes, the park, and the surrounding area. Our campsite was nothing special, but entirely surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains. It was awesome! We could see the dunes at the base of the mountains from our site, not realizing initially that they were almost 20 miles away. These huge dunes are North America’s tallest and encompass about 30 square miles. Of course, they were our first stop in the park the next day.
Feeling like Lawrence of Arabia, we headed up the dunes, intending to hike to the top. Well, I think, we had forgotten how really, really hard it is to walk in soft sand. For every two steps forward, you sink in and slide a step back. Add to that an uphill climb, a starting altitude of 8200 feet and some aging joints, we threw in the towel somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 way up. Instead, we sat on a ridge admiring the immensity of the dunes, the magnificence of the mountains behind the dunes, the tenacity of the kids sledding down and how much newcomers just starting their climb, looked like ants. Obviously, the hike down was much easier.
We did a beautiful hike the next day up to around 8700 feet but NOT in sand and were greeted by stunning views of the dunes, the valley and the mountains. This made me feel less wimpy about not attempting the summit of the the dunes. A drive and walk through the nearby wildlife refuge, capped by a tasty beer in a nearby eclectic farm brewery (whose farmer-owners grow their own hops, malts them, and brews the beer on site) completed our 3 day stop in National Sand Dunes National Park. Well worth a visit!
