Day 2: Raton, NM to Great Sand Dunes National Park

Beth’s blog : We wanted to get moving so we got up around 6:00, took showers and found a cute little Safeway/Starbucks combo in Trinidad, CO at which we got some breakfast to eat on the road.  Looked like a pretty and interesting town although they are working on repairing the interstate right through the middle of it at present.

Gary was interested to see that unlike in Mississippi, bicycles are allowed on interstates here.

There are still pockets of snow in shady or drifted spots along the road here.  The rest of the area is bright green in many different shades among the rocky hills.  Aspens are growing along the valleys with pines higher up. 

Big animals kind of wander around here.  Two mule deer just crossed the highway in front of us and earlier, we saw a cemetery that had cattle bars across its entrance!

We passed through the “big valley” so named by the Utes.  Near here, the Ute tribe(s) encountered the Spanish and got horses which they called the “magic dog”  Horses opened up a lot of territory to the Ute extending their hunting range and making life easier.  Also Zebulon Pike travelled through here,

We got to the Great Sand Dunes NM about 9:45 found out that the “no reservations” campground was full, looked around the visitor center and began our trek up High Dune.  Vertically it is 650 feet and the second biggest dune in the park. Going and coming we had to cross Medano Creek which is formed by snowmelt.  Its peak flow was May 19 this year and it will be mostly gone by August.  Cold and refreshing on the feet.  We took the shoes off to wade it and Gary never put his back on.  Evan and I went barefoot probably half the climb. 

   Whew! imagine walking on a beach tilted at about 35 to 40 degrees for a mile.  Some of the sand was hard packed, but most if you stepped on it, slid a bit so it felt like 2 steps forward one slide back.  It was worth it in the end for the view of the dune field. 

Unfortunately my camera stopped working about 1/2 of the way up.  Since we had been very careful and there was no sand jamming the zoom, we aren’t sure what is going on.  It is making a bad noise in the gears deep inside.   Fortunately we still have my old camera and Gary’s big expensive one so fear not for future blogs. 

On top there were couples, families- including babes in arms and toddlers, women in Amish-looking dresses, 3 dogs and lots of teens including a kid dragging a 6’ rubber raft  The raft was used to slide down the big dune several times.  Ahhh youth.

We took a less precipitous route down, in about 1/4 of the time it took to get up.  It started sprinkling on the way down.  We bought a couple postcards at the Visitor Ctr.  Here is the link to the park page.    http://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm     

We left the park at about 2:15 and began driving in the general direction of Mesa Verde, passing thru beautiful little tourist hamlets nestled between rocky crags, the highway and streams.  We are at an Econo-lodge in Durango tonight hoping to get to Mesa Verde in time to get cliff dwelling tour tickets tomorrow.  We have reservations there for camping.  <Bethany out>