SUNFLOWERS & SAND DUNES

We got a late start the next morning, thanks to our late arrival the previous evening. We checked out of the Holiday Inn and drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park. We had arrived in the dark, so we’d missed all the great roadside scenery. The Sangre De Cristo Mountains dominate this part of Colorado, rising an incredible 7000’ from the surrounding countryside. We enjoyed the views of those peaks as we drove through a tunnel of sunflowers into the park.

After a brief tour of the visitor’s center, we relocated to the dune parking area. The park protects the tallest sand dunes in North America. The highest is the Sand Dune, which rises some 750’ over the surrounding terrain. It is just one of hundreds within the park. The most popular is probably High Dune, which requires only a 1-mile walk to reach. I wanted to do a hike in the park, but Christy wasn’t real interested in traipsing through all that sand in mid-day heat. It was another hot, sunny day, and the chilly rains of southwest Colorado were a distant memory. Plus, Saucony would certainly not enjoy walking on the hot sand. Ultimately I decided to do a short hike, while Christy explored the rest of the park by car. She dropped me off, and we made plans to meet back at the trailhead around noon.

I followed a parade of people towards the High Dune. There are no marked trails on the dunes. As I walked, I noticed that there were a couple of strategies employed by the people hiking there. Oddly, the direct approach was popular. Unfortunately, this required cresting each successive dune, only to plunge down to the base of the next one. I took a different approach, contouring along the dunes to minimize the overall elevation gain. At one point I passed a pack of gasping teenagers who were trying to recover from a steep scramble up one of the dunes. Sometimes it’s better to be old and smart than strong but young.

As I got closer to the High Dune, I noticed that there was a regular parade of people up there. This seemed silly. After all, there are hundreds of dunes in the park, yet practically everybody there was climbing the same one. At the last minute I turned off from my route to climb a deserted dune nearby. This required a difficult climb along a ridge through deep sand. It was worth the effort though. When I reached the top, I had a fantastic view across miles of dunes to the high peaks flanking the park. Best of all, I had that spot all to myself.

I was thinking about heading back when I noticed some odd patches of yellow in the dune field far below. What could that be? My curiosity got the best of me, and I scrambled and slid my way down into a swale at the base of the dune. There, in the middle of a vast field of sand dunes, I found hundreds of sunflowers. I couldn’t believe it! How could all those sunflowers grow there in the sand?

I didn’t understand it, but I wasn’t going to pass up on this photographic opportunity. I took dozens of shots of sunflowers among the dunes, with high peaks in the distance. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that I got a little carried away. My memory card was nearly full by the time I made myself stop. Unfortunately, it was nearly noon, and I still had a fair hike back to the car. To make matters worse, I had to climb back over the dune I’d descended to get there.

I reached the top and raced back towards the parking lot. This was actually a lot of fun. Slipping and sliding down the dunes brought out my inner-child as I hurried back. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long to fill up my boots with hot sand. I had to empty them a couple of times before the parking lot was in sight. Despite my frantic pace, it was 12:30 before I returned to the parking lot. Luckily, Christy wasn’t too annoyed. She was hungry for lunch though, so we headed out of the park in search of food.

We stopped at a café in the village of Blanca for Mexican food before resuming our journey. Our destination for the evening was another Holiday Inn in Raton, New Mexico. Raton is just south of Colorado, so we had plenty of time to get there. Since we weren’t in a hurry, we decided to take the scenic route. Instead of heading straight out to the interstate, we’d tour the Spanish Peaks on the way.

A winding back road led us up toward Cordova Pass. Along the way we were treated to fine views of the twin peaks. The most interesting aspects of this area were the numerous volcanic dykes – ridges of ancient lava running down the sides of the mountains. Some of them were oddly reminiscent of the Great Wall of China.

We reached wooded Cordova Pass, which was surprisingly busy. We were done hiking, so we continued on down the other side of the mountain. This part of the gravel road was rough, and all I could think was that I hoped we’d make it down without another flat tire. A few miles later we passed through an interesting feature. The road passes through a tunnel cut through one of the lava dykes.

We eventually reached ranch lands, and passed through a small ghost town. A few miles later, we passed through another settlement, which appeared to be a ghost town in the making. The town had a “Children of the Corn” feel to it, and we didn’t stop. We reached I-25 a few minutes later, and headed south into New Mexico.

We stopped in Raton, NM, and checked in at the Holiday Inn. We headed out to dinner, and passed the local train station on the way. At the station we spotted several dozen boy scouts with incredible amounts of gear waiting for a train. Apparently they were on their way home from a trip at the Philmont Ranch, which isn’t far from Raton.

We enjoyed dinner out that night, followed by some quality time in the Holiday Inn hot tub and large quantities of beer. It was our last night of relaxation on this vacation, as we were to begin the long drive home the following morning.

EVERYTHING’S BROKEN (REPRISE)

We got a reasonably early start the next morning and headed east across the corner of New Mexico. On the way, we paid a brief visit to Capulin Volcano National Monument. Capulin is one of several ancient extinct volcanoes in northeast New Mexico. A park road leads to the top, and we drove it to check out the volcano. At the summit we found a short path that leads into the crater. We couldn’t hike it with the dog, but we did take a few minutes to appreciate the long-distance vistas across New Mexico. Several other extinct volcanoes are visible from there, and we found Capulin to be worth the brief detour.

From there we drove through the northwest corner of Texas before beginning the long haul across Oklahoma. It was dark before we reached Arkansas, and we arrived late at the Hampton Inn in Little Rock. Fortunately, we only had 12 more hours of driving to go.

We reached Memphis the next morning, and a long, tedious drive across western Tennessee followed. The drive was exceptionally boring, until we reached Nashville and were disabled by another flat tire. I guess the trip wouldn’t have been complete without one more thing breaking! This time we called Nissan roadside assistance to have the tire changed. The disgusting thing about that experience is that the guy that came changed the tire in about 5 minutes!

Here’s the final, complete list of things that broke during our month out west:

Andy’s bike – flat tire

The Xterra – flat tire

The Xterra – another flat tire

Bike rack

Water filter – clogged cartridge

Water filter – another clogged cartridge

Leaking pakteen

Broken buckle on waist belt of Andy’s daypack

Andy’s glasses

Christy’s knee

Myron’s back

Saucony’s feet

Andy’s mysterious illness

Strap on Christy’s bike helmet

Blinking LED light on Christy’s bike

Andy’s headlamp (broken, fixed, and lost within 24 hours, but later found)

Leaking Nalgene bottle

Lost vodka from leaking Nalgene bottle

(Formerly) inflatable sleeping pad

Christy’s boots – worn out

Despite all this, it was still a pretty good trip, and it was nice to be able to bring the dog for a change. We’ll definitely be returning to the Rockies soon. In the Wind River Range, we want to return to the Cirque of the Towers area since we missed out on it this time. In addition, there are some large glaciers in the northeast part of the range that we’d like to visit while we can. In Colorado, Christy still wants to climb Snowmass, and Mount of the Holy Cross, Longs Peak, and Emerald Peak are still high on my list. Plus, I’d still like to backpack a loop in the western part of the Weminuche Wilderness. I’d rather go there in September though, after monsoon season ends!

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Please remember to Leave No Trace!