The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado

This is as close to being in the desert as I ever want to be. The dunes span 19,000 acres and rise 750 feet tall. The park that surrounds the dune is beautiful and has plenty of amenities for camping, picnicking, and hiking. However, the only reprieve from the July heat is the ankle deep streams that surround this mighty sand box. The dunes are settled in the San Louis Valley beneath the Sangre De Cristo Mountain Range, but if you want to actually learn more about the specs and facts, it's better just to visit their website at: http://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm

My moment of greatest learning started with the sentence "Let's climb to the very top peak!" That was my sister... I knew that the journey would be long and would feel like eternity, but I did not know that it would involve so much hot sand. This wasn't the kind of hot sand that I'm used to at the beaches of Alabama and Florida: hot, but if you run really fast you can make it to the ocean in time. At the dunes, we were running uphill with nothing but more burning sand to look forward too. (Not to mention, the sand is a much darker shade of tan than the pretty white beaches on the gulf, so add a couple of degrees for heat absorbance.) Needless to say, we did not make it to the top.

There are two more things that I want to warn against for future trips to the dunes: don't wear Chacos and the first peak is only the first peak. Oh the Chacos... If your first thought about footwear on sand dunes is to wear sandals so that you can trek through water and not get your tennis shoes sandy, you are like me- an idiot. Your tennis shoes dry fast with the sand acting as an automatic heat gun and the sand stays under your arches for prolonged contact with what feels like burning coals. Just go ahead and wear closed toe shoes. We made it only to the second peak, which is maybe only 250 feet high. But I felt like only the Arabian Knights could have accepted that sinking feeling when you get to the top of a steep climb and realize you have to go back down just to climb the next, much taller peak. I felt like I was getting nowhere very slowly.

Regardless of the desert experience, I loved visiting these dunes! First, just the pure mastery of God and nature to create such a large and beautiful phenomenon was amazing. Next, just being with my family was so much fun. I did not visit home much during the spring semester, and my sister had been completely consumed by the hardships of medical school. This was the first trip we had taken as a family in a long time, and I cherished the time we got to spend together. It's funny how much more I enjoy time with my family now that I don't get to see them as much... I should have told high school me about this, but I don't think she would have listened.

Another thing that is a must- do in The Great Sand Dunes National Park is the Zapata Falls hike. The hike to the falls is deceptively easy. The path is cleared with some rocks to navigate through, but it doesn't take you to the falls. It only takes you to the creek immediately downstream of the falls. Walking up to that clearing in the trees felt like we had gone straight from the oven created by the dunes to a meat freezer. It was COLD. And even there, we had to ford through below freezing temperature waters to get to the falls. It was a fun adventure because we had to do a little bit of bouldering to climb upstream so we could get to the cove that holds the falls. That was a moment of pride for our family because Dad is afraid of rock climbing (mostly because of the heights) and made it all the way through the path. However, that did not bode well for Sarah and me because then we were out of excuses to avoid things that are scary for us. I think I annoyed the 15 year old girls that were behind me because I was very slow on the climb, and they eventually just jumped in the water and hiked up the middle of the stream while I crawled around the edges. The waterfall itself was beautiful! It is a 30 foot drop, but is split up into two different directions after being directed by a rock that sits about halfway down. It was a very wet trip so Dad took the camera on this one, which I was glad for because I didn't want to be blamed for any damage to his camera.

My toes have never been more confused than they were by going from burning in the sand dunes to freezing in the water, but I will force them through that experience any time just to get the views and laughs that went along with the journey.