Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve - Mosca, Colorado

Great San Dunes Oasis

  What a gold mine.  They are located just outside the park entrance.  They have gas, food, lodging, RV spots, sandboards and a convenience store.

Dunes view from the RV Park - Day 1

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve contains the tallest sand dunes in North America and a whole lot more.  The Park & Preserve contain majestic wilderness of alpine tundra and lakes, forests, streams, dunes, grasslands and wetlands.

Medano Creek

Lots of sandboarding going on

There goes Cindy

Come on Dave

There was a lot of huffing and puffing but we made it

Morning view of the Dunes - Day 2

Medano Creek
Hiking upstream along the natural beach

The trail narrows in spots

Kids splashing in the creek

Lunch time

 Unfortunately the National Park's street-legal four-wheel drive road to Medano Pass on 22 miles of unpaved road, crossing the stream bed of Medano Creek nine times and traversing 4 miles of deep sand was closed due to a wash out from a recent flash flood.  Hopefully next time.

8 miles south of the National Park is Zapata Falls Recreation Area.
After you drive 3 miles on a bumpy gravel road, you hike 1/2 mile to the creek.

Water flowing from the glacier and snowfields in the valley above found a weak spot near the end of this moraine.  For thousands of years, water has carved its path here, forming Zapata Falls.

Upon arriving here you could feel the temperature drop.

You must wade through the water into the crevasse to view the falls.

Water is cold and swift in early summer.

This 20 feet high waterfall cascades within a narrow crevasse.

Some are trying to avoid the cold water

Looks like it's raining over at the Dunes.

Wet Dunes

Blanca Peak Trailhead

 This road to Lake Como is one of only 3 authorized roads to access the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness.  It is considered one of the most difficult 4x4 routes in Colorado and is one of the Top 10 4x4 routes in the world.  This road serves as the primary trail that leads to several 14 footers on the Blanca Massif including Blanca Peak.

Blanca Peak

Jaws 1 AKA 1st obstacle

Remnants of old cabins

Jaws 2 AKA 2nd obstacle gets all the hype but we found it to be no problem

This area doesn't even have a name but it got our attention.  It was tippy and the cliff was close.

 After winching up, we turned around and headed back down.
Never making it to Jaws 3 and 4 or Lake Como.

Back down Jaws 2

Morning Dune view on our final day

Where'd they go?