The Great Sand Dunes

We arrived at the dunes and from a distance they looked so vast. As we drove it seemed like they didn’t get any bigger. They looked pretty forlorn because there was a looming thunderstorm above the entire dune field. Spanning from one mountain range to the next. The sky was dark gray with dark clouds. In the visitor center and everything we read about the dunes warns about lightning and the dunes. The dunes are slightly magnetic themselves and they are the highest point in the area. If you are on the dunes then naturally you become the highest point and the most likely target. Knowing this we were cautious about heading out. We decided the past plan would be to go to a designated campground and start to get all of our backcountry gear together. We packed both of our packs and made sure we had everything we needed. We filled all of our water jugs and our camelbacks. Because of the nature of the dunes surrounded by mountain ranges it was hard to tell the direction of the clouds. There were clear areas in the sky that looked safe and other areas that looked not so safe. We waited for over an hour watching the weather before making a decision. We also outsourced, we called the Sarah and Tom weather service. Thanks to radar and family we were able to know the worst had already past. We ended up hiking into the dunes. I was a little nervous but we decided not to camp on top of a dune but in a valley instead. And if we saw another thunderhead or heard thunder we decided to hike out. This meant we couldn’t hike in as far as we originally wanted to. From the overnight parking area the hike past the day use area did not look too far. The backcountry area, or where camping is allowed, is past the day use area. It did not look very far, but it was. As it usually goes the hike was a bit harder and longer than we thought, but we were well prepared and the weather was getting nicer and cooler every moment. We still had about two hours of sunlight when we departed. We walked first through grassland of sorts. There were cactus plants, most flowering and fire ants everywhere we looked. The ground beneath was mostly sand but not soft like at the beach. And the plant life covered so much that you could hardly see sand. We had to rough it through a section. Then we came across a sandy rock bed. These rocks looked so out of place, there were tons of rocks, green yellow pink and other colors. These rocks were just jutting out of the sand. We had to go over the rocks and then we came to a stream. The water looked the most out of place because other than this water there was arid desert. There are streams on either side of the dunes. These streams carry snow met and replenish the entire region. These streams sustain life only to sink into the earth and dry up in fall. The water goes into natural underwater aquifers into a lake at least thirty miles away. The entire system relies on the rest of the system and there are so many diverse sections of it that don’t seem to fit together but all in a beautifully designed plan they fit together and allow the other parts to continue. We walked through the stream. Parts that seemed to be only sand held buckets of water underneath. With each step my feet sank into the mud. The Great Sand Dunes is one of the only places in the world where waves occur outside of any ocean. In the streams miny sand dunes are created and the water pushes until the pressure causes a dune to break. This generates small waves and the stream looks like it is pulsing. We made it over the stream and through another rock/sand bed. Then it was onward to the dunes. The majority of the hike was up hill. Each step going up the dunes felt like we slid back two steps. I thought we would never reach the top at this rate. It was strange how in some places on the dunes our feet would sink in and others the sand was so compact that our feet hardly left a print. We just walked right on top of some areas. After hiking up up and up we made it over the crest and into a valley that we decided to camp in. After briefly setting up camp I decided to check out the high ridge further into the dune fields to see what the sunset would look like. I tried to run up the dune and in some areas had to crawl because of the grade and the sliding nature of the sand. The climb was more than worth it though. As the sun was setting it made different parts of the dune field look gold. Depending on where the dune was in respect to the other dunes and how shadows fell the golden colors changed and lengthened moving over the dunes. The mountains in the distance changed with the changing sunlight as well. Some of the mountains appeared blue while others where green with trees. I climbed to the highest crest near our camp and sat on the ridgeline to watch the sunset and the effect it had on the landscape. It was a really nice sunset. Like most sunsets the sky turned orange. The awesome part was the effect on the remaining clouds. The clouds turned yellow and pint and looked like a painting. I tried to take pictures, but in the pictures they look flat and the colors aren’t as bright and the contrasts did not seem as striking as they were when I was sitting under them watching the clouds change color. Once the sun finally slipped behind the mountains I slid slash skied down the dune back to camp where Brad had been preparing dinner. We had a delightful meal thanks to meals ready to eat and dessert too. Dessert in the desert. There weren’t any scary clouds in sight and the stars were coming out. The temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees if not more since sundown. So we bundled up and called it a night. Once I though I heard something in the middle of the night so I poked my head out of the tent to get a better look. When I looked up the sky was so clear and there where more stars than I have ever seen. Right overhead was the Milky Way. At this point I was so glad we decided to camp on the dunes. There were no thunderstorms; in fact the weather was perfect. We didn’t even bring our sleeping mats because the sand was cushion enough. It was like playing on the beach but the sand wasn’t the least bit wet or muddy. In the morning when we woke up with the sun baking us in our tent we decided before we broke down camp we would explore for a bit. We got some water and off we went into the dunes. Chasing ridgelines and rushing down the sides of dunes only to climb back up. We noticed around our camp different tracks, not ours, and not human. We heard a coyote, or so we thought and with these “dog” prints we are pretty sure a coyote got pretty close to our camp. There were these little dune kangaroo mice tracks everywhere. At one point there were coyote prints to one-side and mice tracks at another. There was what looked like a leap and a pounce and the mice tracks stopped. So it looked like dinner happened about 20 feet from our camp. Well, at least part of dinner. This was a bit scary, but we knew the coyote was not interested in us we were just in his area that is all. After playing we headed back this time down the dunes, which was much, more fun. I crossed the stream barefoot this time, which was also more fun than with shoes on. It felt like the sand right where the waves break at the beach. That perfect squishy, but not too muddy sand. Then we went back through the dessert grassland. On the way out I noticed a sign that I had not seen on the way in. It said something like. You are now entering the backcountry where by definition man is a visitor who does not remain. I am glad I noticed this sign and am happy that there are places where we are still only visitors who can come in for a bit, but do not stay.

Although we did not stay there is a bit of the Great Sand Dunes with us still. The memory and the sand that managed to get in everything. Breaking down stuff at the car we had sand coming out of everywhere, it is a good thing there is 30 square miles of it left because brad must have had a ton of it stuck to him and his things. We shook off the best we could and tried to shake all of our gear to leave the sand where it belongs but I am sure we will bring a little bit, a grain or two with us on our travels.