A new job was taking too long to start. I got grouchy. I decided the best thing to do was go somewhere in the motorhome for a few days.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park was about a day’s drive from me. I had never seen it. I hooked up the Jeep to the tow bar and headed out over my favorite highway: US 285.
The weather matched my mood. Not at all pleasant. Heading south beyond South Park and approaching Buena Vista, the clouds parted for a view of Mt. Antero:
I have written of this mountain before, here, and here. It is one of Colorado’s Fourteeners and is named in honor of Chief Antero of the Ute tribe.
The Great Sand Dunes lie just west of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the southernmost range of the Rockies. Geologists say that the dunes were formed when fierce east winds whistled through the Sangre de Cristos, eroding them and picking up little grains. When the winds reached the valley west of there, they slowed down. Unable to hold the sand grains any longer, a pile of sand accumulated.
This is a very rugged range of sharp peaks and steep valleys that extends a little way into New Mexico. The Colorado portion of the range contains only one road that I know of: the rest is wilderness. Here was my first peek at them:
My mood was improving. The weather was not. A little storm moved in, allowing for this spectacular weather shot:
I proceeded on into the Park and set up camp.
Day 2
I wasn’t all that interested in walking the dunes. I grew up on the Oregon coast where there are lots of dunes, and had been there, done that. Besides, I was about 100 pounds overweight after living in Tennessee and in no shape to hike through sand.
The official park brochure showed a four-wheel-drive trail that continues up through the Sangre de Cristos and out the other side. I decided that Jeeping was what I really needed. I aired down my tires for better traction in the sand and headed up the Medano Creek Road, which is really just a two-track trail. Here’s what it looked like:
Eventually the road leaves the National Park and becomes a US Forest Service road. Here are a couple of curious deer that I encountered on that part of the road:
It was at about that point that I’d seen enough and headed back to camp. Here’s a view of the dunes themselves that I shot on my way back:
I’ve seen a lot of great photos of sand dunes - I’ve even taken a few, when I was a kid - but I never got the light I wanted that day for these dunes. Seems they were always in a cloud shadow. I only got this one shot, and it’s mediocre:
Now, to give you an idea of the scale we see here, is a zoom into an area on the left side of the above photo, where you can see people walking around:
That’s how massive these dunes are.
On Day 3, I returned home. My foul mood was gone and my attitude a lot better.