Colorado Expedition - Day 5 - Sep 13

My first night of camping since December 1999, in Australia of all places. Took me a bit of time to get into the groove again ... sleeping on the ground, the dirt, the solitude, the cold. Great to get away from the hectic pace of the city though. Pre-dawn photo by starlight. No moon on this night. I loved this backcountry camp site, here are some views in the morning.

I used the morning to mount my hi-lift jack to the Surco roof rack as I didn't have time to do this before I left. The mount kit is easy to put together although I have to take many breaks as I am still getting used to the altitude. After a hearty breakfast I packed up the site, made sure nothing was left behind and that the anti-bear cage was clean (no bears by the way), and proceeded on the Medano pass trail. The Peter Massey Colorado Trails book says that the Medano Pass trail passes through creeks at least 8 times. Even with the dry weather of late, more than half of the crossings are running, they are quite low however so no real problem with crossing them.

Much of the trail is quite rocky but generally flat so I just have to watch out for any sharp ones, don't want to get a flat out here. The great campsites continue all the way along the trail, some of them under the shadow of some cliffs, others are right up against the creek, overall you can't go wrong with choosing any one of them. As I was driving up to the second to last crossing, I see a flash of movement in front of me so I step on the brakes and shut off the engine. A family of Bighorn Sheep have come to the clearing to graze and drink! I remember to not get out of the vehicle as my photographer friend Mike pointed out to me once. It seems they cannot make sense of a car, but if they saw me out of it, they would bolt immediately.

A bit after the last creek crossing, the trail enters the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The trail starts to become sandy and this is where the guidebook recommends lowering the tire pressure to 25 psi so I took out the mil-spec tire deflators I purchased from Sierra Expeditions. They sure do deflate the tires in a hurry! As the trail got closer to the dunes I took some shots of where I came from and where I was headed. The dunes look massive even from this distance.

The closer you get to the dunes the more you can't believe just how massive they are. Pictures don't do them justice. This is from a rest/picnic site along the trail. The closest the trail gets to the dunes is about 50 feet. There is a pull off and a short climb down the creek bank to the water. This is just the tip of the dunes and if one was inclined, they could climb up to get to the next level. There was another picnic area further on where you can clearly see various attempts to get up the first dune. As the guide book says, this trail gets you the closest to the dunes, however, because of the sand and some inclines, a 4wd is definitely required.

As you start to head away from the dunes and towards the dispersed camping area, you see the dunes from a different perspective. It seems that every angle offers something new to look at.

Finally at the visitor center I got to "clean up" a little bit. The center is very nice and has excellent information (geological and historical) on the dunes. Its quite a trek out do the dunes from the visitor center, but if you don't have a 4wd and can't get any closer, its definitely worth it. Some final views as I prepare for the drive to Durango. Overall a great experience, I would definitely come back to actually hike up to the dunes but unfortunately on this trip, time was running short.