Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Continuing our attempt to visit all of the country's national parks we start the day by driving to Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was made a national park in 2004, so it's one of the newest parks (maybe the newest?). It's claim to fame is the tallest sand dunes in North America. We're a little confused since there was a state park in Idaho that claimed to have the tallest sand dune in North America. These sand dunes are definately a lot taller than the sand dunes in Idaho. I don't think pictures can relay how large these sand dunes are; it's odd because there is no desert here, so the dunes are unexpected.

We keep our usual national park routine of looking at the displays at the visitor center and watching their movie. We then start our hike up to the top of the dunes. The visitor center movie warned us that this is a very demanding hike. It doesn't look that hard and the start is very easy: a walk through the Medano Creek, that runs along the edge of the dunes in the spring (it dries up in July).

It is a challenging hike! We pass several people coming down and ask them if they made it to the top and most of them are saying "no" -- too tough, too hot, too high altitude, ran out of water, etc. We are determined to make it to the top of the dune. We take lots of breaks going up the dunes. The hike isn't steep, but every step is in loose sand and the air is thin at this altitude (around 8000 ft).

Here is a picture of Joe climbing the dune (we chose different routes at one section; there is no marked trail, each person chooses their path to the top):

At one point I don't think I can make it any further, but we rest for 10 minutes and I am determined to make it to the top (as long as my heart doesn't explode from over exertion). Here is a view of the visitor center from about halfway to the top of the dunes

We finally make it to the top. We thought that we were climbing to the top of the tallest dune, but turns out this is only the second tallest dune. The tallest dune is another mile and a half. NO WAY can I make it to that dune, but we do see two people in the distance who are trying to get to the tallest dune. We're proud to simply make it to the top of this dune; there are only about ten of us on the top of the dune and there were many more who gave up and turned back before making it to the top.

The view is nice from the top; but the view was just as nice halfway up the dune :-)

The trip down the dune is a lot of fun! We run down the steep parts, screaming...lots of fun!

When we get to the bottom of the dunes (much quicker than the hike up), we spend time wading through the shallow Medano Creek. The water feels good on our feet and the ripples that the stream makes are interesting to watch.

We drive down the road to have a picnic lunch and a short hike to Zapata Falls.

It's only about 20 minutes to the creek which flows out of the falls, but to get to see the actual waterfall we need to hike in and along the creek and then into a cave-type opening to see the falls. I step into the water to walk through the creek and my feet are NUMB within the first 30 seconds. The water is from snow-melt and is incredibly cold.

No photo of the actual waterfalls since the water was spraying out of the waterfall, but an interesting hike to an almost hidden waterfall.

We drive back to the campground for a refreshing swim in the pool, followed by dinner and doing some laundry.