Jo and I have been wanting to go to the Great Sand Dunes for years now, and since I had one more weekend off after Pingree before I had to return to work, we figured it would be a good weekend to finally check them off our list. So we did. And it was awesome.
We started out super early on Saturday and hit the road. The drive was fairly uneventful, although we did see this gorgeous field of sunflowers along the way. I insisted we stop; I brake for sunflowers.
We made it to the San Dunes around noonish. The plan was to get there, set up the tent at the campgrounds at the dunes, and then go explore. There was only one problem: neither of us liked the campgrounds. Turns out that Jo and I are somewhat of campground snobs. If there are too many people, or if we're too close to our neighbors, or if there are dumpsters and full-blown bathrooms with running water, we'll move on and find something else. Also, we're not big fans of paying for a campground, especially if there are screaming kids on bikes rampaging through what's supposed to be our peaceful home for the night. We're not trying to be difficult, it's just that overcrowded campgrounds are just not are thing. So we moved on. We had heard that there were "primitive campgrounds" about four miles down a sandy road, so we decided to check those out instead. The only problem was that the Jetta, bless its heart, couldn't make it because of the extremely soft sand. What to do, what to do?
Grab all our gear and hike back to the campgrounds, of course.
So, we did.
The sign says it all. This was as far as we had gotten with the Jetta, bless its heart. But soft sand was no match for our determined selves, so we bravely pressed on, shrugging off the signs of danger that were everywhere...
Actually, it wasn't all that bad. The walk turned out to be very pretty, if not tiring. We had the glorious dunes on our left the whole time.
And the scenery on our right was not too shabby either.
Medano Creek was low, but there was still enough water to get our feet wet. We left the road and followed the river whenever we could. It did slow us down, but it sure was fun.
The patterns in the sand were fascinating.
This is me running towards Jo after acquiring a plastic bag from a group of friendly picnickers. We needed the bag so that we could pick up trash along the way, like all good little hikers should.
And this is Jo, cooling off his feet in the river. Neither of us had planned to backpack and had started out at the hottest part of the day (smart, huh?), so the cool river water felt awesome.
The sand dunes were just so lovely.
See? Jo couldn't help but stare.
And so we toiled on...
At times the going was rough. This is a nasty sandpit that Jo almost succumbed to. If not for his quick thinking, he may have been a goner.
No one who sees this picture could deny just how close Jo came to a harrowing death.
Other sections of sand were baked so dry, we almost perished from heat stroke. Nah, not really. I am being a little dramatic. But we did see baked sand. See?
When the river become too difficult to walk along we left it in order to walk along this newly formed stream bed. It appeared as though a flash flood had carried mud along this small depression. After the water passed, the mud was left behind to bake and harden until it was nearly as hard as cement.
We knew we were getting close to the primitive campgrounds, so we continued on. We finally did reach them about an hour and a half later. Even though we were tired (walking in sand is hard!) and it was getting late-ish, we didn't want to settle on the first one we came to, so we walked along checking them out until we decided which one we liked best. Here was our selection. SUCH an improvement on the other campgrounds. All primitive campgrounds were equipped with bear boxes due to the large population of bears that roamed the area. They were especially important because a recent fire had displaced some of the bears from the mountains, and they were coming lower to find food. We didn't have any trouble, though.
We had a super view of the cliffs behind our tent:
And then we just relaxed and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We had had a great day, and had seen some really beautiful scenery, but we hadn't had a chance to go play on the dunes, so we were both eager to do so the following day.
We woke up early because of the long hike back. Here's a picture of the entire campground. We didn't have any neighbors, just like we like it.
We had a quick breakfast because we really wanted to get a move on. We had not planned on the hours we had spent hiking the day before, and while we were eating we decided that it would be best if we didn't have to walk all the way back. So, we came to the consensus that the best thing to do would be to hitchhike. Neither of us had ever hitch-hiked before, but we figured we'd give it a shot since it would save us a good four hours.
We packed everything up and hit the road. We walked for about thirty minutes and had stopped at a small creek to filter some water when we heard a truck coming. We flagged them down and asked for a ride back and they said yes. It was as easy as that. They were quite possibly the nicest people hitchhikers could ask for. Not only did they have a nice large truck bed that we could stretch out in, but they even offered us cold drinks from their cooler, and offered to stop whenever we wanted to take pictures. SO nice!
In about half an hour (the same distance had taken us four hours!) we were back to the campgrounds where the Jetta was. After many thanks, we parted with our new friends and took off for the car, which was parked about ten minutes away.
Along the way we found this guy sipping nectar from the flowers. No, it's not a hummingbird. It's a ginormous moth that kept Jo and I staring for a good twenty minutes. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the thing was huge. And check out that tongue.
These were the flowers it was feasting on. They grew like weeds around the dunes. I really liked them, because they looked like something you'd find on an alien planet.
And here's another point of interest we passed on the way to the car. Neither of us knew deer behaved this way, so it's a good thing there was a sign to warn us.
After reaching the Jetta, we decided to go play on the dunes before doing anything else. We drove to the main pull-off, where most people access the dunes. We walked across a sandfield and then started climbing. It was midmorning, but already the sand was heating up. The day before we had decided that we were going to try to get a permit to camp on the dunes themselves, and we realized that we would have to wait until afternoon to hike up them, since it would be miserably hot to attempt it any sooner. So, after goofing off for an hour or so, we returned to the car. The plan was to go visit a nearby waterfall. We set off, and stopped by the visitor center on the way so we could grab a permit for dune camping.
The falls was less than an hour away. We drove up a dirt road to get to the trail head. We stopped at a picnic table to have lunch (tofu pups heated over the mini stove) then set off for the fifteen walk to the falls. This was the view.
We got there in no time. Zapata Falls.
You couldn't actually see the falls until you hiked back along the river to a little canyon that was tucked back. It was actually really nice. The water was surprisingly cold. It was really hot out, so it felt good, but if it had been a chilly day it would have been miserable.
We walked back and were soon in an environment that was as different as could be from the hot, sandy dunes below. It was AWESOME back there.
It was really hard to get a picture of Zapata Falls in its entirety because of the angle at which the water was falling, but you get the idea.
This is a view looking towards where the water is exiting. It was such a neat little canyon. Like a hidden surprise or something.
This is a picture of us shortly before we immersed ourselves in the freezing water. There was another couple there who thought we were insane. The water really was cold. But when there's a pool of water around, Jo and I dunk ourselves in it. It's just what we do.
Eventually, we pooled ourselves away from Zapata and walked back to the car. It was well after noon by this time and we wanted to get back to the dunes so we could start hiking by four, since we figured the sand would start to cool down by this time.
We drove back and got packed up, then set off. We walked towards the dunes for about an hour before we actually got to them. Then the real work started. Let me tell you, it was crazy hard to hike up the dunes. It was still really hot out, the sand was incredibly deep, and those suckers were steep. Take a look.
The going was slow, because for every two hard-earned steps we took, we'd slide back one. We didn't exactly walk. Crawl would be a more accurate word. We did make progress, though, and worked our way up.
We eventually crested the first massive dune. The going was easier after that, since we followed a more gradual route. Still difficult, but not insanely difficult.
The views were so worth is once we that high. Just dunes, as far as the eye could see.
We kept walking, looking for the perfect campground. It was very windy unless you found a valley to protect you, so we were looking for a nice spot that wouldn't be too exposed. Jo was the first one to spot this little gem of site. We knew that it would be protected from the wind, since it was sheltered on three sides by dunes. It was like a little oasis in a see of sand.
The sunflowers were a cheerful addition to the other shrubby vegetation.
And we had tons and tons of these little black beetles to keep us company. They were scurrying around, going about their business. These three had found a nice juicy root to chew on.
We quickly set up camp. We had some business to attend to. Namely, there was a nice steep dune that had our name on it. We climbed up, then sprinted down. SOSOSO fun. Take a look:
We weren't done playing yet. We took advantage of the soft ground to practice our amazing jumping skillz.
And, lastly, we had a dune walk to go on. Apparently scaling the behemoths from earlier hadn't been enough for us, because we both wanted to go check out more, sans packs. We took off thinking we'd have a strenuous, but pleasant jaunt around the dunefield. How wrong we were.
The thing was, our lovely little valley had fooled us into thinking the rest of the dunes would be as calm. In fact, once we got to the ridge, the wind was so bad that it was difficult to walk right. We kept going because we were both determined to catch the sunset. but, looking back, I'm not sure why we didn't just turn around right away and go back the way we had come. Both of us were in shorts, and we were getting sandblasted so bad that at one point I looked down to see if I was bleeding. It really was nuts. We did catch the sunset though.
We ran back as fast as we could to our lovely little valley. It was like a different world down there; so much less windy and craziness.
We got up early the next morning because we wanted to see a sunset and a sunrise from the top of a dune. It was lovely.
And then, it was time to go.
Our conclusion: the Great Sand Dunes are amazing, and we had so much fun visiting them! Even though we both knew we'd have sand in every crevice of our body for the next week.
