Great Sand Dunes National Park

[SuckingSow]

Saw GSDNP on the map and decided to stop by there on a recent trip to Colorado. If you haven't been there, it's an interesting place. 30sq mi of dunes up to 750ft tall. Took some round plastic sleds you use for snow sledding and the kids were able to slide down those dunes just like they were on snow. They loved it! 

The Dunes are next to the Sangre de Christo Mountains near Alamosa and there are some nice hiking trails there.

We came back to Arkansas via Red River NM which we just happened to go through looking for a scenic drive. Never been there before but what a beautiful place. I've got to go back and go trail riding on a Polaris Razr....those things were everywhere!





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[SuckingSow]

A panarama from the dunes


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[McKdaddy]

+1
Just arrived back home tonight after a trip to southwest CO. We had never seen the dunes, so we decided to stop there last Friday (Aug 1). However, Sow, we were terribly unprepared to visit properly -- we ended up having our feet "burned" by the hot sand as we didn't have proper shoes on per arrival, and didn't carry water for our dunes adventure, AND didn't put on sunscreen, thinking we wouldn't be there that long. But it was a sight to see. Great pics, better than mine. Interesting place, indeed.

[SuckingSow]

+1
Just arrived back home tonight after a trip to southwest CO. We had never seen the dunes, so we decided to stop there last Friday (Aug 1). However, Sow, we were terribly unprepared to visit properly -- we ended up having our feet "burned" by the hot sand as we didn't have proper shoes on per arrival, and didn't carry water for our dunes adventure, AND didn't put on sunscreen, thinking we wouldn't be there that long. But it was a sight to see. Great pics, better than mine. Interesting place, indeed.

We were there on Friday as well. Got there early morn and it was unseasonably cool that time of day.  It had rained overnight...highs may have been in the lower 80s. The brochure we picked up at the visitor center stated the sand could reach 140 deg during hot summer days. We were fortunate to have been there on a cool day...barefoot up to the top and never did get hot. We were gone by about 1 or so. These pics are from that Friday. Sorry to hear it wasn't as cool for y'all.

[McKdaddy]

We had been driving much of that day from Tulsa to get to the house we had rented in South Fork, CO. We stopped at the dunes around 3pm along the way. Our intention was to take a couple of pics from the visitor's center, then proceed to South Fork. But our kiddos, ages 9 & 5, wanted to walk in the creek and on the dunes "a little".

So we left the visitor's center to go to the parking lot closer to the dunes. In the parking lot at the dunes' entrance we saw lots of people w/ boards to ride down the dunes on, we saw people w/ "proper" shoes (we all had socks and tennis shoes on), people putting on sunscreen, and carrying water. We joked at that time how ill-prepared we might be for this, but that the kids only wanted to play a little, and thus we should be fine.

My errors:
-- our water shoes and flip-flops were packed deep in the suburban, which I didn't feel like unpacking to get to. So we took off our shoes and socks near the bottom of that little rubber-matted path that leads to the dunes. The kids wanted to run-on/climb ahead, and we let them. We thought we'd just hang by the creek at the base of the dunes and wait for them to come back. Well, they didn't come back. They had their minds set to reach the top -- of course the wife and I didn't know this, nor did we communicate well to them how far to go or not go. Our fault. About 1/3 the way up the dune, the kids disappeared behind a dune or mound. We waited about as long as we felt we could for them to reappear. We were getting thirsty standing there, getting sun-burned, and felt hot. Admittedly, it wasn't Tulsa hot, but being 7,000+ feet closer to the sun had an effect on this fair-complected soul. About 10 minutes later they still hadn't reappeared. So we start trudging up there. We walked the direction we saw them go, but didn't see them for about 15 more minutes, when we had reached about 1/3 up the dunes. At this time another mom, we didn't know her, is worried about not being able to find her kids also. So my wife's anxiety is ramping up. We finally see them and they are about 2/3 up the dunes. Somehow we couldn't see them until that point. So they are 2/3 the way up and we are 1/3 up. We start calling their names, but they couldn't hear us. They are just chugging along. We start making-up ground on them, and eventually they hear us yelling their names. When we caught up, the kids were complaining of the bottom of their feet hurting (they were lightly "burned" from the sand), we are all sun-burned, and all parched.

-- ditto for the sunscreen.

-- I didn't bother to ask or seek-out water. The water bottles I brought for my cycling some of the passes while on this trip were accessible, but empty. After visiting the dunes I saw where people were going to fill their water and clean the sand off of them, but did not see that beforehand or ask. I badly regretted this afterward. I'm in decent shape, as I ride my bike 2-3 days and roughly 115 miles per week, and do other gym cardio another 2-3 days per week. But I'm also accustomed to chugging lots of water daily, thus I was hurting for water on those dunes and afterwards. As thirsty as I can remember being, Sow. My wife had me concerned (and I'm not generally a worrier or one that gets concerned easily) that she might be exhibiting early heat-stroke. When we eventually got back to the parking lot, I had the wife and kids get into our vehicle for the AC and shade, then sought out water, feeling foolish when I found it easily and for not seeking it before our dunes experience. I had the 3 of them, particularly the wife chug water, with me going back-and-forth repeatedly to refill my water bottles. The wife was responsive, but sick to her stomach (prior to the water I was having her drink) and with a raging headache. She looked a bit "out of it". After a bit she and the kids began to look more alive, but the wife wouldn't feel completely better until I got a little food in her at Alamosa.

Next year's trip we will prepare better, and likely go in the morning. If the wife will agree to another trip to the dunes, ha.

[McKdaddy]

But a beautiful and interesting place. Glad you guys had fun, Sow.

[SuckingSow]

Being so overcast, sunscreen never entered our mind neither. I'm practically bald and I did burn my head/ears pretty good even though the sun didn't make much of an appearance while we were on the sand.

Glad nothing more serious happened to y'all.

Did y'all manage to hike to Zapata falls near the dunes?  Coldest stream I think I've ever been in.

[SuckingSow]

Zapata Falls

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[McKdaddy]

Did y'all manage to hike to Zapata falls near the dunes?

We saw the ZF sign on the way to the dunes and decided we'd do it after seeing the dunes. Needless to say, we skipped ZF after the dunes. I was disappointed, but then ended up seeing a plethora of falls during our time in SW CO. All are great to see, imo.

I wonder if ZF's stream was so cold b/c it is coming down from the 5th tallest mtn in all of CO....Mt Blanca. Makes sense, I guess.

[McKdaddy]

Zapata Falls

+1

[McKdaddy]

Just downloaded our pics from SW CO...here's what we took of the GSD:



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[McKdaddy]

A bit closer....

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[McKdaddy]

A couple of panos....



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[McKdaddy]

The wife and I couldn't get over how blue the sky appears in SW CO. Maybe it is that way at most higher elevations. IDK. I've been to CO several times for skiing, but didn't remember the sky being so blue on those trips.

[SuckingSow]

A couple of panos....

+1
Very nice!

[aristotle]

I went to GSD two years ago. Tent camped on site. And there is no exaggerating the point of how blue the sky is there. Amazing


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[mhuff]

Thanks for sharing everyone.