6 May 2019 Lamar to Mosca Colorado

We were up early, eager to hit the road. It was a 6.5 hour drive to the Great Sand Dunes Oasis RV Park ($41 per night with GSC) which is just outside the entrance to the park. To shave off approximately 40 miles, we decided to take Colorado 10, a state road (not a state Highway),

 across to Walsenburg. We won’t do that again! The road was not well maintained and it was a rough ride. Better to stick to Interstates or US Highways when possible. This was also our first big climb in the mountains. The grade on US 160 over Le Veta pass is 6% for 8 miles. The truck did great! It got a bit warm, between the load, grade, altitude and air temperatures in the upper 70s, but no where close to the red zone. We did slow down to at 45Mph on the steepest part, which was better than David expected.  When we arrived at the Great Sand Dunes Oasis RV Park we were informed that due to the continuing winter weather, they had not yet turned on the water in the RV Park. So we had to fill the fresh water tank by the office before going to our RV site. They also don’t have WiFi for the RV park even though they do for the lodge just up the hill. Not happy campers! This was the first time we have had to run for 5 days off the fresh water tank (107 Gallons), which holds half of what the average water usage in the US is in a day. It will be an interesting 5 days! Critter sighting: we saw two groups of Prong Horns along the road.

But the view out our door was incredible with the dunes clearly visible against the mountains.

View of the Dunes out our door.