Day 14: Saturday May 16th, Great Sand Dunes National Park

We were on the road by 12:30 pm from Garden of the Gods heading to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Driving there, we kept thinking, We are headed towards sand dunes aren't we? shouldn't we be able to see, well, Sand and dunes? Turns out the Sand dunes are right up against the mountain, so you don't see them until you are basically on top of them. 

 

We watched the video in the visitor center that showed how the dunes were created. Basically take a dried up inland sea, add lots of one directional wind, and mountains to put the breaks on. all that sand hitting the mountains created the sand dunes. The Dunes are not growing anymore as the dried up Sea has long been blown away. But they are ever changing from one day and one moment to the next. 

To get to the Dunes you have to walk across a 'river' or a wash. It's about a hundred yards across and ranged from 3 inches deep, or to up to a foot deep if you timed it right (or wrong). The water comes in 20 second surges, so you try to time it to jog across staying ahead of the deeper surge. Zig zagging a path across. I had my rain pants and lady bug rain boots so I was all set.

Daryl crossed in his keen's with his pants rolled up. All good, except for two things, the sand in the shoes rubs against your feet, and it was COLD.

 The Rangers had said there are no trails to follow so it's a go anywhere you want. There isn't a cutoff time either so you can be out there as long as you want. The ranger told us to just keep an eye on the sky and if we hear thunder get off the dunes. You don't want to be the one item standing taller than a dune when lightening strikes! Sounds like good advice. 

It's a bit of work walking on sand dunes. Think of walking on a dry sand beach, however, that only has about a foot of loose sand. Now picture a hill full of all sand. When you step on it, it slides and your foot goes any and all directions. So you are not only working to get yourself uphill, but you are fighting to maintain your balance the whole time. The edges of the sand dunes were dramatically sharp, one side you could walk right up to the edge (though not advised as the sand shifts all the time) and the other side is just a sheer wall. (This is Daryl looking over the edge of a dune, Yikes) 

Notice the dark clouds over Daryl's shoulder? Just after this picture was taken we heard thunder. We both looked at each other and wondered if it was really thunder. Then just to make sure we understood, the sky opened up with a deep loud rolling, and rolling thunder. That got us heading back down and out in a hurry. Running down the slopes was a lot of fun!

Just as we got down from the First Dune, the dark clouds opened up. But it wasn't rain that started to pelt us, it was Hail! Yes I said Hail.

 As we made our way back, more and more hail covered the dunes until they looked like snow covered hills instead of dark tan sand dunes.

One last water crossing

and we were back to our truck

Wow what an adventure! The sand dunes are beautiful and amazing.