My friend Bri met me at the airport and after some minor errands around town we started the drive down to Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's about four hours south of Denver off of I-25. The drive was mostly uneventful until we were about 30 minutes away from the park entrance. The sky became very dark and thunder and lightening started then it promptly started HAILING! Does this sound familiar? It should, because that's exactly what happened when we were driving to the Grand Canyon in April!
We paid at the park entrance and found our campsite. We had to wait in the car for a little while for the rain to clear up but it didn't take too long. Bri and I planned this trip a long time ago so we had reserved a spot in Loop 2 of the Pinon Flats campground online. If I understand correctly, Loop 1 spots are first come first serve but have much better views overlooking the dunes. Our campsite had a bear box (that I couldn't figure out how to open!), a picnic table and a fire pit. Firewood is for sale at the store near the campsite from 1-7pm only.
We didn't get everything set up until 5-6pm so that evening we went for a short walk around the dunes. I was already getting eaten alive by bugs (mental note: bring bug spray everywhere!). The setting sun cast some really beautiful shadows on the dunes.
Dinner was veggie burgers on a fancy camp stove Bri borrowed. The evenings are very lively with lots of families and dogs in neighboring campsites but the stars are plentiful and it quiets down around 10pm.
Our site was conveniently across from the bathrooms where there is no soap, no paper towels and no showers! I was very surprised to hear that there weren't any showers at the camp site because somehow NPS manages to get showers at the bottom of the Grand Canyon but apparently not in many other national parks.
We were awoken around 6am by some other camper snoring impressively loudly. Bri made some delicious eggs on the stove, we packed sunscreen and water and set out for the hike!
To get to the dunes you have to cross Medano Creek (also pictured above at night). You can see in the morning (around 830am) it has a lot more water in it- though I think calling it a creek is generous. Apparently it is formed by snow melt that mostly dries up later on in the day.
I kept seeing these tracks in the sand. I never figured out what made them? They sort of look like snake tracks but we never saw any snakes.
Another thing I found interested was the way the sand creates a mini sand "waterfall" when you're walking along the ridge of a dune. The sand slides down the other side and creates this beautiful texture. I'm sure there's some physics explanation as to why they're all the same length!
We had decided to try to get to the top of the tallest dune- Star Dune which is 755 feet high and located west of where the Dunes Trail from the campground hits the dunes. So we scrambled up some smaller dunes, rested a lot and eventually made it to the ridge where we could see Star Dune. I was questioning the value of climbing up 755 feet of sand (it's very very very hard) but decided to just go for it.
Of course the view from the top is well worth it!
Here we are at the top!
Overall I was surprised that it wasn't too hot. It's very windy there (of course that's how sand dunes are made!) but the sand wasn't being blown around too badly. I was also surprised by how challenging it is the hike up sand. I'd also recommend wearing hiking boots with ankle support. I didn't get too much sand in my boots but Bri had to stop and empty her shoes a couple of times.
If you go, bring snacks and take lots of breaks! Overall it took us about 2-2.5 hours to get to the top and back to the campsite.
After the hike we were exhausted. It also got very hot in the middle of the day. We brought sleds but never went back to the dunes to try them out. It was hot in the shade of our campsite so I don't think either of us wanted to brave the sun bouncing off the dunes. We relaxed and read for the rest of the day. Another storm threatened to get vicious that evening but it was nothing more than bad clouds and thunder.
