This is part one of my two-part trip report to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. I also took video, but it'll be a while before I get it ripped off the camcorder. If it's anything like our last Disney World trip, a while means about five years. But I'll try to be a little quicker this time.
Wednesday, 7:00 a.m.
Beep. Beep. Beep. "Honey, time to get up. If we want to get on the road by eight, we'd better get a move on."
8:45 – Leave.
Drive. Drive. Drive. Really, what can you say about a seven hundred mile road trip, most of which is through Texas?
After an ungodly number of hours, we're almost in Colorado. We see a volcano in the distance and decide to make a side trek to stretch our legs.
We pay our five bucks, drive to the top, and take the crater rim hike, a one-mile loop around the rim of Capulin Volcano. The path to the vent at the bottom was closed for re-paving, but that was fine, since all the cool views are at the top. This is an easy, paved route for just about anybody.
After that brief diversion...Drive. Drive. Drive.
Finally, we arrive in Alamosa, CO (pop. 8,700). We pull into our motel--Days Inn--check in, eat some pizza, and watch some old C.S.I. before bed. The motel isn't all that great, for the record. Old, sort of rundown, but it was better than sleeping in a tent, if only because there were hot showers and a microwave in the room.
Thursday
We drive to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's about thirty-five miles from Alamosa. You can either take Highway 160 east until you see the sign for the park, or Highway 17 north until you see the sign. The Highway 17 route offers gorgeous views of the mountain ranges and the dunes. Make sure you have enough gas to get to the park and back, because the gas station nearest the park is about $3.50/gallon.
After stopping at the visitors center to talk with a ranger about possible hikes, and to purchase this book (which I highly recommend,) we drove to the Point of No Return. This is the last place two-wheel drive vehicles can reach. We decided to hike the Sand Ramp Trail, a moderately difficult hike of approximately 3.8 miles one way. If you've ever walked across a beach, you know how difficult it is to walk in sand. Now do that for seven miles, with some of it uphill.
You can see our truck in the background of the shot of Joe. Don't be fooled by the sand. We were often sinking past our ankles.
The views of the mountains and dunes were magnificent. We saw a pair of elk (I think they were elk) resting beneath the shade of two trees. Since it was the middle of the day, the wildlife was scarce, of course, but that was fine.
In case you're wondering, we weren't as close to those elk as the picture seems. We were probably a couple hundred feet away from them.
We reached the next trailhead, where the Medano Pass Primitive Road meets the Sand Ramp Trail, and turned around, since we were getting tired and we still had almost a four mile walk back. The mosquitoes were terrible. Clouds of them whenever we were near a body of water. Bring plenty of bug spray.
On the return hike, thunderclouds formed over the mountains in the distance. The wind blew up, and it started to rain. Cold rain. There's nothing like being on top of a hill when you see lightning in the distance to get your heart pumping. It's not as if you're the tallest object around most of the time.
We spent about five hours on the trail and drank about half a gallon of water each. By the time we crashed back at the hotel, we were exhausted, blistered, and mosquito-bitten.
A few general hiking tips: You need sunscreen, bug spray, a hat, and sunglasses. And don't skimp on the water. Joe and I have both noticed we don't get particularly hungry during a hike, so we bring very little food compared to the amount of exercise we're doing. If you're backpacking, you'll get hungry when you stop, but for the entire five hours, I think I ate a couple servings of trail mix, a couple of small snack cakes, and a granola bar.
Part 2 after this short commercial break.