Sept 9, 2023
Written By: J.Couch
We got up as the sun was coming up behind the mountains to the east. Beams of sunlight were sneaking through lower sections of the mountains and lighting up the sand dunes. It wasn’t long before the sun peeked up over the mountains to light up the whole valley below. We made some breakfast then packed up everything and headed to the Oasis lodge. We picked up a few sand boards to go explore the sand dunes. For a small fee, we were able to park our trailer at the Oasis lodge so we didn’t have to haul it around the park and try to find places to park. Great Sand Dunes National Park, here we come! We got into the park after a quick stop at the park sign at the front, found a parking spot right away and started the trek across the sandy beach-like area towards the sand dunes. Last year when we were here there was a shallow but wide river flowing here, but at this time of the year the river is dry.
The day was starting to warm up, and we made it to the small dunes at the base of the big towering sand dunes. From a distance they look small but when you get closer you realize how big they really are. We quickly found that hiking up the dunes is not an easy task. I wanted to try to hike to the very top of the dunes to get a good 360 shot from there, but that didn’t happen. I took off to try to accomplish that. I had left my shoes with Heather and was walking barefoot up the sand dunes, I found that the higher I got the hotter the sand was getting. I had to turn back, I wish that I had taken my shoes.
We found a few smaller hills, waxed our boards and sledded down the sand. The process of doing this gets sand absolutely everywhere. We saw a few people wearing goggles and face masks. I thought that was a great idea after my first run. We may have brought home a few pounds of sand in shoes, clothes and backpack. We wore out pretty fast and within about an hour or so we were done sledding down and climbing back up the sand dunes. Plus the sun was getting pretty hot out there on the sand. If you decide this is something that sounds fun and you would like to try it, bring a lot of water, sunscreen and some good shoes that you don’t mind getting sand in. Also if you bring phones or cameras you might want to bring some kind of bag to put it in, otherwise you will probably get sand in them. Sand is not great for electronics.
We headed back across the beach-like area of sand towards the parking lot to start our journey back home. After dumping lots and lots of sand from our shoes we jumped in the Jeep, but stopped at the visitor center before leaving the park. Again we had a great time at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We really enjoy going to the sand dunes, there is just a different kind of calm, peacefulness and beauty there that you don’t get at other National Parks. We stopped by and picked up our trailer and pointed north towards home.
We stopped for lunch in Salida, about an hour and a half north of the dunes. We found a place called Moonlight Pizza and Brewpub. They have a couple pizzas that can be made vegan. We ordered the Venus pizza minus the mozzarella cheese and the pesto and added a vegan cheese. We also ordered a small side salad to go with the pizza but it came out first and was gone before the pizza even arrived. The pizza was pretty good and the vegan cheese was not the normal waxie cheese that some of them can be. It seemed a lot creamier than others we have tried. Bonus, they also had a non alcoholic Mexican lager by Rationale brewing. It was pretty good. Heather got a fruity drink that was going to be off the menu soon and the waiter talked her into it, over her normal go to, margaritas.
Lunch was good and we were soon back on the road. We took 285 back and went across Kenosha pass. This area is supposed to be a good place to see a moose. And this trip over the pass did not let us down. Just past the campground on the east side of the road was a huge moose with massive antlers standing in the mud at the pond. Lots of people had stopped to check him out so we pulled over to see him too. Very cool to see these guys out in the wild. Just make sure you keep your distance, they can be temperamental and can hurt you easily.
We rolled into Denver early in the evening and dropped off the trailer. Cleaned up the Jeep and stopped to get some dinner before heading home. It has been an amazing week wandering across the beautiful state of Colorado. There are many new places out there to see, see them while you still can. Keep wandering and thanks from The Wandering Couchs.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
