Where winds have swept the sand grains from mountain ranges into dunes and piled them up against themselves. The sight of them far from any remaining seas is surreal.
Days at Park: Sun, 24 September 2017
Base Camp: Super 8 - Salida, Colorado
Expedition Parks: Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes
Point of Embarkation: Denver, Colorado
I was coming from a full morning of hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park and it was a 4-hour drive just to get to Salida, which is still an hour and a half away from the Great Sand Dunes. But OH that drive through mountain ranges and across high plains in autumn made me fall in love with Colorado.
Montville Nature Trail
As I approached the dunes from the south and west and saw them piled up against the mountains named Sangre De Cristo (Blood of Christ), I could not believe what I was seeing. My experience with sand dunes had been limited to the variety that built up along the shores of seas, primarily Lake Michigan. But these dunes were so much larger and more extensive than any I had ever seen. As anxious as I was to immediately start climbing them, the first short hike was along the Montville Nature Trail which offered stunning views of both the dunes and the snow capped mountains beyond.
High Dune & Star Dune
Hiking the dunes is not like hiking other parks. There are no trails in the sand and you are free to climb the dunes at any point you desire. Somehow two landmarks are identified on maps as High Dune and Star Dune, the tallest dune in the park, and this was my goal. Just to get to the dunes first you must cross the Medano Creek, which was at a low point this time of year, and then traverse a vast field of sand. As I eventually started climbing, I realized that the only way to reach the top of any dune was to walk along the dune ridgeline, rather than trying to scale the sheer dune wall. Once on top of one dune, I looked around for the next tallest height and ascended another ridgeline. I continued to do this until I could find no taller heights around me and assumed I was on top of Star Dune. Although the pictures seem serene, in actuality the wind was blowing a continuous assault of sand making the summit an undesirable place to remain. The descent was thankfully much more rapid and afterwards, not surprisingly, the de-sanding process took many days.
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