Great Sand Dunes National Park

 Monday September 22nd, we left Denver, headed south to our first National Park.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.  

This is a beautiful national park that encompasses an area of large sand dunes on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in south-central Colorado.

The tallest dunes in North America are here and are the centerpiece in a very diverse landscape of grasslands, wetlands, forests, alpine lakes, and tundra. The dunes cover 39 square miles with the tallest dune rising up to 750 feet.  

Recent scientific research suggests that the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado began forming around 440,000 years ago, after a large inland lake that once covered the San Luis Valley – named “Lake Alamosa” dried up.  The evidence of the lakebed was discovered in 2002.  The predominant southwest winds constant blowing toward a low curve in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains helped form Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes.  (Essentially, the sand blew up against the mountains).

Even though it was a little cloudy and cool, we had a fun time climbing some dunes and generally checking out the area.  

Here is the very unassuming entrance to the dunes, but it opens to this! Bob and Laura are taking the lead to explore.

The above picture is looking back towards the parking lot as we set off on the dunes, and below is what we saw after cresting the first dune.  You get the picture- more dunes. 

Kids and adults using snow sleds and wake boards to slide down the dunes.  We would have had a blast doing this as kids, but as an adult - I will pass. 

After we left the main dune area we explored some of the vegetation surrounding the dunes.  Signs said that all this vegetation was helping to hold the dunes in place. 

I think on this trip I am going to take pics of Laura taking pictures.  She is very good at it and Bob is supportive and stops whenever necessary.  (As shown below) 

Those are the dunes behind us. 

Tuesday September 23rd, 2nd day at Great Sand Dunes, we woke up early to get to the dunes early to avoid any rain that was supposed to head in mid day.  It was a smart move, we enjoyed beautiful weather. 

First we hiked up to see a waterfall-Zapata falls.  It was a very pretty hike up rocky trail, but when we got there, we couldn’t get near enough to see the falls.  They would be best to see in the spring, but it was a nice mile long hike anyway.  Then we hiked back to what started as a “dune overlook” trail.  We ended up traversing 3.3 very sandy miles on some overlooking of the main dunes, some trails through dunes with low vegetation, some a dried up creek bed and some on an off road remote camping road. So in other words a little of everything and it  was all very picturesque.  I hope you enjoy the pictures of our day!  

A view from the trailhead to the falls, looking back at the Great Sand Dunes. 

Here’s Laura getting even a better picture of the dunes from Zapata Falls trailhead.  It was a good view because we were on a mountain a few miles away from the national park. 

Time to head up the trail. 

Laura is trying to find a way around, but we just couldn’t find them…

So we headed back to the National Park to start some exploring.  But first-we had to get pictures on the way in and in front of the signs like every good tourist should do. 

LET’S GET HIKING

Bob contemplating life-OR-wondering why he took 2 sisters on a trip. 

When we were off the path and by the river/creek bed, we saw multiple bear tracks-yikes! 

But luckily no bear and we headed out to more of this beautiful scenery, and said adios to the sand dunes as some clouds rolled in and headed to our next destination - Durango Colorado.