Believing The Bird

Like the rest of Colorado and the San Luis Valley, the look and feel of the Great Sand Dunes National Park snuggled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains northeast of Alamosa, changes with the time of day, the season, and the weather conditions. Although great cumulo-nimbus clouds covered the park for part of the day, we lucked out and got only a few sprinkles of rain later that afternoon on the way back home. The clouds took up residence above the dunes for only part of the day so we were also treated to deep blue skies.

It was a Thursday morning that we drove over from Monte Vista, taking Six Mile Road east off U.S. 285 through the potato and other farm fields to join up with Colorado 150 just south of the national park. Myriads of yellow Jerusalem artichokes along the road brightened the way. I always get a bit of a thrill driving toward the mountains and gradually seeing more and more of their detail. We were in a high mood, looking forward to a whole day away from watering, weeding, and other chores at home.

The Visitor Center’s restrooms are open, but none of the rest is available due to the pandemic. We counted license plates from 30 states in the parking lot. A lot of people walked the trail around to the back of the large building for their first close-up view of the dunes. We moved on to the dune parking lot and counted more license plates there. We needed only 8 more after that count to get all 50.

After a drive through the camping area (sign at the entrance says it’s full but we see lots of unoccupied spots), we backtrack to the parking lot for the Medano Pass Primitive Road. Sign says something to the effect of “Shovel your own manure coming or going.” Evidently this is also a starting point for trail rides. Indeed, we did see a bunch of horse riders below the Sand Pit later in the day.

This primitive road is mainly for 4-wheel drive vehicles, and loving our little Hyundai, we park it, load up on sun screen, and don our packs. Three and a half hours later we return thoroughly fatigued and happy.
The Medano Pass Primitive Road is 99% sand. There are a few rocks here and there, mostly at this end close to the parking load and the camp grounds.

Pinon Flats Campground is one of the most beautiful sites in the nation: [https://www.nps.gov/grsa/planyourvisit/pinonflatscampground.htm]. Although it looks like it could be congested, the layout of the land and trees provides a nice feeling of being on your own, yet within an easy walk of amenities. Eighty-eight individual camping sites and three large group areas (15-40 people with tents) are available. Bear boxes (food storage) are situated at each site.

So on the sand primitive road, we start. This is one of the very few times in my life that I have hiked alongside vehicles coming and going. Now this requires attention to the here and now, and even the hear and now, because one must be vigilant for vehicles coming and going. The road is quite narrow in some spots, requiring the hiker to climb up on the side of the road, sometimes a challenging feat because the sand wants to pull you right back down again. We were wishing for a trail alongside the road after a while.

There are lots of pull-offs along the way, for a couple of reasons: some drivers decide the road is too challenging and need a place to turn around, and in some places, two vehicles cannot safely pass each other.

We made a number of rest stops. My husband Joe is a firm believer in second and third breakfasts, as well as in early and late lunch, not to mention snacks. He never eats a lot at one time, but does eat often. This is fine with me because I get to rest and take more photographs. And I definitely needed multiple rests on this uphill sandy excuse for a road.

At a mile away (only a mile???) we find trailheads for mountain hikes, and leading downhill, a sign for “Sand Pit - .5 miles.” We take the Sand Pit trail. I say “trail” loosely because this is more like a slip and slide, sand version. But we finally get down and, as expected, the Sand Pit is a restroom. Thank goodness!

It is just before we get down this far that we spot the horse-back riders traveling off to the south near the base of the dunes.

We did not want to back track the trail we had just descended; fortunately, the road we had been on went past the Sand Pit so we trudged back up the hill on it, pausing to rest at a picnic table under an enormous ponderosa pine tree. The views all along that way had been gorgeous. I took over 250 photos of various perspectives of the park that day.

Happy to be back at the one mile point, most of the rest of the hike was downhill, a huge assist in walking on the sand. It seemed to help us along. Back at the car, (so wonderful to sit on an upholstered seat!) we unloaded our packs and drove up to the picnic area, just off the dune parking lot, and enjoyed a mid-afternoon snack and drink while watching a mountain bluebird, a magpie and a crow canvas the grounds. We also watched people walk up the trail from the dunes parking lot back to the visitors’ center. It was good just to sit and watch for a nice long time!

We did not get all that far on the Medano Pass Primitive Road but there is always the next time.

Re the photo at the top: the tiny dark objects on the shadowed dune in the center and in the lower right are people! Purple-blue bee balm, yellow tansy, and sage grass grow at the base of the dunes.