This year we spent the summer fishing at Blue Mesa Reservoir, while there we heard about this unusual place and decided to route our trip back home to stop by and explore this area.

We are still in Colorado, known for its high mountains and scenic lakes and rivers, but you say to yourself, sand dunes in Colorado?

Can you guess where we are? Yes, we are at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in the southern part of Colorado. The dunes are found between Salida and Alamosa off Highway 17.

As we approached the dunes, the contrast of seeing North America's tallest dunes over 700 feet in height nestled between the mountain ranges of the San Juan Mountains, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains seemed out of place. The dunes formed over 12,000 years ago as glaciers from the last Ice Age began to melt, the melted glacier water began to flow into the Rio Grande River with sand and debris deposited on the valley floor of the San Luis Valley. As the natural wind currents occurred it lifted the sand to form.

As we were driving on the two-lane road in the park, we approached a turnout and drove in and saw the dunes in a different mood, the storm clouds and shadows of this barren landscape. We said that we should get into the Pinyon Flats campground and find a spot for the night as the clouds were getting closer and the wind was beginning to blow. At the campground, you will find 88 camping spots with fire grates, picnic tables, drinking water, and flush toilets.

We drove the two loops to find a level site for our camper and boat. Since this was late in the afternoon many larger sites were already taken, but after driving the loops several times we settled in on a site and unhooked the boat. Then came trying to level the camper since the site was out of level. I got out all of our level blocks as Bill was telling me which side needed the most, after several tries, we finally got the camper level. One thing we said to each other was that we were glad that we did not have our 34-foot trailer with us since there were very few sites that could hold such a large unit. The restrictions for vehicle length are 32 feet, and turning the corners of the loops would be impossible if we had our trailer with us since our total length is over 60 feet. Before you enter the park, there is a private campground where you can park your large RV and then drive in with your tow vehicle or car.

I looked out to the dunes and saw the storm approaching and the wind blowing in the distance, I got Daisy out of the camper for a quick walk, we had very little time because immediately after I got her back into the camper the storm hit. I called out to Bill who was outside verifying that the boat was safely parked and that the truck windows were up. Bill came running into the camper just in time as the storm approached with winds over 40 miles per hour. You could not even see the dunes, we sat inside the camper and saw other campers’ tents go flying into the distance, with the wind and rain all we could do was just look outside at the severe storm.

We thought about all the people still hiking the dunes and hoped that no one got lost in this severe storm. This is something that you should be aware of when hiking the dunes, the winds can blow hard and cause poor visibility.

The storm lasted for 15 minutes, but it seemed longer, and when it was all over, and the skies cleared; we saw this beautiful rainbow. 

We had dinner and planned our next day’s activities, along with watching some TV on our satellite dish. Throughout the night, we could hear on the camper roof the pitter-patter of the rain falling and thought to ourselves that we hoped that it would clear out by the morning so that we could hike up to the top of the dunes.

The morning came with blue skies and as the sun started to rise, I ran out to take this picture of the effect that the rain had on the sand dunes; it seemed to give more depth to them. We had breakfast and then drove to the turnout, where we gathered our lunch and water bottles for our hike to the top.

Since temperatures can still climb into the 80s in mid-September, we found a large shade tree to park the camper under and walked Daisy. We had several bowls of water for her and had two fans on in the camper to keep it cool for her. We decided to hike in our tennis shoes, long pants, a hat, and sunglasses. We packed in our backpack a light jacket and many rolls of film.  

During the summer the temperature of the sand can reach over 140º, so you should hike the dunes in some type of protective footwear. Allow at least two hours to hike the dunes and carry water with you. 

As we started our hike we wondered if we could make it to the top, since you have to cross the long flat dry stream bed called Medano Creek before you even get to the bottom of the dunes. Medano Creek in the spring and early summer has water running at the base of the dunes and the young and old can build sand castles as though they were at the ocean.