The Pass is legendary: CW McCall sang about it.
I'm glad they didn't have to pick US up with a "stick and a spoon!" ;)
We did stop at the very top and enjoyed the view and the snow.
As fate would have it, all three girl's morning coffee caught up with them around the summit and we all had to find a restroom!!!
Hurry Terry! Hurry! Just don't fall off the edge of the cliff OK?
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After finding a bathroom in Pagosa Springs, we turned northward, still following highway 160 toward the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Allen kept describing it as we drove because he had been there as a child. But no description really does it justice. Sometime, you all just have to go see it for yourself.
It looks like the Sahara got picked up, blown across the world, and dumped in the middle of the Colorado Mountains.
Allen is pointing to the peak that he, Jenae, and I climbed. We REALLY did make it to the summit! And what did we see after 2 hours of trudging through the sand, you might ask?
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MORE SAND!!!!!
The dunes go on for what looks like forever!! And they are a crazy juxtaposition to the snow we had just played in a couple hours above at Wolf Creek Pass.
The dunes actually cover 30 square miles, which would seem like forever if you were caught in the middle of them.
Luckily, while the dunes look like the barren Sahara desert, they are not quite as hot. At the end of June, the park is somewhere around a comfortable 80 degrees. The sand itself was hot, I wouldn't have wanted to climb it barefoot, or with just sandals. But, with tennis shoes, it wasn't bad. We took a LOT of breaks and carried 2 water bottles a piece. The hardest parts of the trek were climbing up the very steep areas. A 55-60 degree incline is hard enough when the ground under your feet is solid. But when it gives with every step, you have to take about 3 steps for every one on normal footing.
Sand with snow peaked mountains in the distance
The tree line, where the sand ends, is our starting point. And even though the walk looks flat, it is NOT. Its an illusion. In fact, on top, everything below us looked flat. But, we can tell you, every hill was about a 30 foot change in elevation. And in total, the summit we reached was 300 feet above where we started.
Terry and Laura opted to stay below and watch us with binoculars and a camera. They got some awesome shots:
We are the tiny dots at the top.
Climbing up.
Coming down was easier than going up. Basically, you could run flat out down a 60 degree hill and not fall. You just sink in the sand with each leap and it "catches" you.
We were pretty proud of ourselves for defeating the dunes.
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Then: they always say what goes up, must come down. After our great and inspiring hike...it was about 1 more hour of driving until we made the worst mistake of the trip.
:<
The first rating when you look up Corine's Mexican food in Walsenberg, CO is mine. Yes, we got food poisoning. Actually, the girls got through the experience fairly unscathed. Allen and Terry did not fair so well though. :/ We shouldn't have eaten it. We know. We'll know better next time. It was nasty. That's all I have to say.
After eating, we drove through the flat, barren part of Eastern Colorado along tiny highway 10 to La Junta and our campground for the night. The campground was fine, but we were back in mosquito country and Jenae and I tried swimming, but had trouble enjoying it because of the mosquito infestation. That night, we were tired after our journeys and enjoyed our night's sleep.
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The next day, the food poisoning really hit the guys. It was bad, but we still had to travel home. Plus, there wasn't much going on in La Junta. We did stop by an old western fort on our way out of Colorado which was neat. But the boys felt so bad...we felt sorry for them.
Allen did rally to pet a very tame long horn that was loose near the fort. They actually allow them to rome free, even into the parking lot.
After the fort we drove to Dodge City, Kansas. 209 miles with two food poisoned passengers is far enough! We stopped earlier than we had ever stopped before on the trip and Jenae and I (feeling fine) enjoyed watching two movies while everyone else slept and recovered from the Walsenberg debacle.
The next morning we took the time to pack everything from the camper and into the truck. Dodge City had been our last campground and we planned not to open the camper again until after we arrived in Arkansas. Our trip home took us through Wichita and Tulsa and the sight of Rogers was good for our eyes. Allen and I still had to make our 500 miles way back to Bloomington, but Rogers feels like home and like they say..."no matter how far you wander, there's no place like home."
We were glad and yet sad to have made the trip and to have made it back.
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It is a strange thing to come home. While yet on the journey, you cannot at all realize how strange it will be.” – Selma Lager
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Next up on the blog: my journeys to Indianapolis and Kentucky with my family! Stay tuned!
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