Being a Tuesday, David had telecons to support all morning but after his last telecon around 1Pm, we headed out to the park. The weather forecast for later in the week look pretty ominous with winter storm warnings for Wednesday through Friday. We stopped at the visitor center and collected our 33rdPassport Stampand watched the park movie. The sand dunes are the highest in North America at 755 feet high at the tallest (and they estimate 300 feet under ground). The dunes are formed from sand that has washed out of the Sangre De Cristo and San Juan mountains over thousands of years. The sand is washed into lakes west of the park via Sand Creek on the west side of the dunes and Medano Creek on the east side of the dune field. When the lakes shrink in the summer, the wind then picks it up and blows it into the dunes. Scientists believe that very little new sand is coming out of the mountains and the majority of the sane is washed from the east side of the dunes in the spring by the winter run off from Medano creek and recycled into the dunes by the summer western winds.
David had visited the park in 2003 and climbed the dunes. Having climbed plenty of sand dunes in the past, we really did not feel like tackling the tallest sand dunes in North America since it is really tough slogging. Instead we took a trail to the dunes over look (2.5 miles) for great views of the 43 mile dune field. We also drove the Medano Pass Primitive Road to the point of no return. David had driven the road in his F-150 during his last visit and remembered the road was very narrow, intended more for jeeps than larger vehicles. So there was no way we were taking the behemoth beyond the last turn around. The road is closed due to snow beyond the 4 mile mark anyway. The dunes are impressive when you stand at Medano Creek and look up at them. Very few people climb to the top of the dunes. The clouds cleared out in time for a beautiful sunset. It was the first opportunity we have had in a while to have a campfire, so we took advantage of it and made ourselves a nice little fire! Critter sighting: we saw several groups of deer in the park as we drove in.
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| Entrance Sign |
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| Dune Field from the Overlook |
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| Dune Field from the Overlook Trail |
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| Medano Creek with sand dunes and mountains in the background |
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| Dunes and Mountains from he RV Park |
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| Dunes across Medano Creek |
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| Dunes across Medano Creek |
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| Shadows on the Sand |
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| Dunes across Medano Creek |
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| Camp Fire with the dunes and mountains int he background |
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