West - Day Eighteen - July 10, 2005

Again, I took it easy this morning and didn't leave until closer to noon. I drove down I-25 to route 160 west across to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, just designated as a NP last September. As I drove north into the park, sand dunes appeared on the horizon, just in front of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range (including two 14k+ peaks). It's the oddest thing - a beach in the middle of the mountains. The sand is brown (compared to White Sands NM in New Mexico) with a creek running in front of it so it seems to be a big attraction for the locals on the weekends. I hiked part way up the dunes and decided that was enough - at an elevation of over 8,000 feet, I didn't want to push it too much. I stayed at the quaint Great Sand Dunes Lodge just outside the park and had a relaxing evening watching the sun set.