Dune it!

When we left Lamar, we decided to head directly to Great Sand Dunes National Park without distraction. Within an hour, we pulled into Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site after seeing a sign on the road….so much for not getting distracted.

Bent’s Old Fort was a trading post on the border of Mexico before the Mexican-American war pushed that border to the Rio Grande. Americans, Mexicans and many Indian tribes including the Cheyenne and Pawnee used it. The National Park Service built a recreation of the fort, using blueprints and sketches of the original to guide them. We took a tour and realized that the trading routes of the fort would have connected to the Allegheny Portage Railroad in Pennsylvania!

After leaving the fort, we began driving on a road that seemingly went on forever, we watched an approaching thunderstorm for sixty miles before we arrived in Walsenburg. We managed to find some great Mexican cuisine and walked around the town to stretch our legs, and burn a tiny percentage of the calories from lunch, before getting on the road again.

We finally arrived in Great Sand Dunes National Park in mid-afternoon and immediately found a campsite. We set up camp and walked to Medano creek, just at the foot of the dunes, which can rise to 750 feet!

The next day, we awoke early excited to hike the dune field. We strapped on our hiking boots and when we got to the dunes we found ourselves in some of the most strenuous hiking that we have ever done for three reasons:

1)    Altitude: 8200’

2)    Sand makes footing tricky… imagine walking through an uphill beach…

3)    We’ve been sitting in a car for a week and are probably out of shape

We huffed and puffed our way to “high dune” which is the second highest dune in the park. The panoramic view gave us a great spot to enjoy our trail mix and visit with the other dune climbers. Eventually we made our way down, which was much easier and incredibly fun!

We relaxed for the rest of the day with games, food and music before going to sleep early.

The next morning, we hiked the overlook trail for a view of the dunes from the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It gave us a breathtaking view of the immense dune field book-ended by the prairie on one side and the mountains on the other. We saw some friendly deer walking the trail with us on the way back.

Leaving the park, we couldn’t help but stop and gawk at the dune overlooks. We just crossed the continental divide on our way to Gunnison and Crested Butte where we may feel slightly less dehydrated in a slightly less arid environment!