Great Sand Dune National Park

 We left Tunkhannock early Tuesday morning August 20 for Cincinnati, Columbia Missouri, Dodge City Kansas and Great Sand Dunes National Park (which we reached Friday evening).  Great Sand Dunes has the tallest dunes in North America (750' high), created from the prevailing winds that blow the gravel and sand from the west up against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  The sand is up to 350' deep in the San Luis Valley, settled first by the Spaniards.  It used to be a lake bed and is very flat.  There are two streams that surround the dunes on each side and wash the sand down in the spring where it is blown back onto the dunes, which have remained remarkably constant over hundreds of years.
 We woke the next morning and decided to climb to Mosca (Fly) Pass, up 1,700'.  For us flat-landers, it was tough at first, but we stopped a lot and tried to identify the wildflowers along the way.  It gradually went up until we reached this high meadow below the pass at 9,750'.  We were surprized not to see any wildlife.  We were pretty much alone on the trail due to our early departure (8:00 a.m.).






On the way back, the dunes were framed by the valley we had climbed.  We then drove to Valley View Hot Springs, up near Mineral Springs at the north end of the San Luis Valley.  Like all our hot springs adventures, we got lost and eventually had to drive a long dirt road towards the mountains where we found this absolutely delightful set of hot springs that are now part of a land trust.  I had last been to these springs in the 1960's, when they were known as a place to drink and get high, the water was dirty and there was a lot of trash.  In 1970 the property was purchased by a couple who developed it into something akin to Brietenbush Hot Springs.  There are camping spots and lots of different pools (all of which we sampled).  They ranged from quite warm (106 degrees) to barely body temperature.  They limit the number of people in the area, so it was peaceful and a great place to soak away the aches from our 7.4 mile hike in the morning.

The next morning, Sunday, we took off for Mesa Verde National Park to meet Joe and Vera Wiatt with whom we are going to travel for the next six weeks.  Here you can see the dunes below the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.



In addition, the valley was ablaze in sunflowers.  As we headed over Wolf Creek Pass we got into rain and fog.











A last view of the Great Sand Dunes, first described by the Spaniards and then by Zebulon Pike.