(by mark)
We successfully completed our first camping trip in Colorado! No bears and no mountain lions. Though we did get to see a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.
We traveled down to the San Luis Valley in South Central Colorado to meet our friends Chris and Jamie for some backpacking adventure. This expansive valley is flanked by the San Juan Mountains to the west and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east. Sangre de Cristo translates to “Blood of Christ”—legend has it that a Spanish priest laying on his deathbed saw the mountains lit up by the setting sun and uttered those words with his last breaths. Anyway, nestled up against a dip in the “Sangres” is the Great Sand Dunes National Park. And GREAT these sand dunes are! A confluence of wind, water and towering mountains caused sand to pile up at the foot of the range, creating the tallest sand dunes in North America, with the tallest topping out at 750 feet above the valley floor. We spent a night camping at edge of the forest along the dune field and enjoyed the scenery of the setting sun over the dunes.
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| From Sand and Sangres June 2009 |
After our night near the dunes, we embarked on a more ambitious hike up to South Zapata Lake, an alpine lake above treeline at an elevation of about 11,800 feet. Our hike started at about 8,900 feet, and we climbed nearly 3,000 feet over about 5 miles to reach a wonderful campsite at the edge of the forest. The next morning we walked up to the lake. This hike and campsite afforded some fantastic scenery. We hiked to several alpine lakes over the winter, but this is the first time we have ever camped in an alpine environment and the first time we’ve seen an alpine lake in the Spring. The scenery was awe-inspiring, including the many wildflowers, which Cassie plans to write about in a future post.
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| From Sand and Sangres June 2009 |
After hiking back down the mountain, Chris and Jamie headed for home in Texas and we headed for the town of Alamosa for a hot shower and a bed to sleep on. The view across the valley was quite spectacular.
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| From Sand and Sangres June 2009 |
We returned to the dunes the next morning to hike up to one of the highest (but not the highest, which would have been a much longer hike). The place is really a moonscape on earth. Amazing.
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| From Sand and Sangres June 2009 |
Here are 60 more pictures from our trip. Or click here for a larger version.
