Thursday, September 01, 2005
I Heart Colorado Part 1
Current Location: Pueblo, CO
Wednesday morning, I woke up and drove quickly to my first destination, Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is an archeological national park, dedicated to hundreds of years of American Indian habitats, cliff dwellings and kivas. There were a lot of good hikes in the park, and a lot of history to learn. I spent a few hours going through the museums and historical sites and exploring the cliff dwellings. The park was very interesting, and was very similar to Bandelier outside of Santa Fe. You can view the photos here.
I noticed that in Colorado, people were extremely friendly. I met a lot of east coast transplants who have moved to Colorado to live the figurative cowboy lifestyle. Everyone has their own take and what they fell in love with in the state that prompted them to up and change their lives and move out there. I have loved meeting people on this trip, especially people with passion for life. Colorado is definitely a great place to live. Plenty of wide open land, great big cities, lots and lots of mountains for skiing, and crisp clean air.
I drove east across Colorado via US 160 which skirts the southern end of the Rocky mountains. I veered onto Colorado 112 in the town of Del Norte, so I could get to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Great Sand Dunes was very cool. At the very southern and western edge of the Rocky Mountains are these huge, immense sand dunes, they grow to an elevation of 400 feet. The sand blows in from the deserts in the west, and when it hits the Rockies, it has no place to go, so it has just been collecting for thousands of years. I got to Great Sand Dunes near sundown and I pulled up to the dunes and tried to walk out to them. The base of the dunes are about a half mile from the parking lot. I kicked off my flip flops and began walking and came to a river buried by sand. The water comes to the surface but there is not enough flowing water to create anything but wet sand.
The sand river
I started walking and walking out to the dunes, and the sand was very cold only about an hour after the sun stopped directly shining on it. It reaches 140 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, but it must have already been about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The air was cold too, and the wind was blowing steady, at least 30 mph, with gusts much greater. The sand was very deep and it was difficult and slow to walk out there.
Walking out to the dunes
The sand was picked up by the wind and really drove hard into me. It was so thick, you could actually see the wind, and feel the sand. It felt like hundreds of pin pricks a minute. I got about halfway to the dunes, and I was so cold and so beat that I had to turn around. I couldn't even make it. The only problem now was, heading back to the parking lot, I was now heading into the winds, and the sands are so expansive, I wasn't even sure I was facing in the correct direction or heading towards the parking lot. I felt like I was on Arrakis, it was amazing. The spice must flow. Luckily I saw some people, so I headed towards them. Due to the increasing wind and difficutly walking, it took me about 15 minutes to walk the quarter mile back to the parking lot. When I got to my car, I had to brush myself off. I was covered in sand, it was in my eyes, my hair, my mouth, my nose, my ears, in my toes, clothes, pockets and even in my camera.
At this point, it was getting real dark outside, and the sun was going down. I couldn't see the sun, because it was west beyond the dunes, but I did get some nice sunset photos.
You can view the rest of the Great Sand Dunes photos here. Great Sand Dunes was the 11th national park in the past 10 days (Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Saguaro, Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes). An amazing whirlwind. I continued east on US 160 to Walsenburg Colorado, then north on I-25 to Pueblo, where I stopped for the night.
Wednesday morning, I woke up and drove quickly to my first destination, Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is an archeological national park, dedicated to hundreds of years of American Indian habitats, cliff dwellings and kivas. There were a lot of good hikes in the park, and a lot of history to learn. I spent a few hours going through the museums and historical sites and exploring the cliff dwellings. The park was very interesting, and was very similar to Bandelier outside of Santa Fe. You can view the photos here.
I noticed that in Colorado, people were extremely friendly. I met a lot of east coast transplants who have moved to Colorado to live the figurative cowboy lifestyle. Everyone has their own take and what they fell in love with in the state that prompted them to up and change their lives and move out there. I have loved meeting people on this trip, especially people with passion for life. Colorado is definitely a great place to live. Plenty of wide open land, great big cities, lots and lots of mountains for skiing, and crisp clean air.
I drove east across Colorado via US 160 which skirts the southern end of the Rocky mountains. I veered onto Colorado 112 in the town of Del Norte, so I could get to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Great Sand Dunes was very cool. At the very southern and western edge of the Rocky Mountains are these huge, immense sand dunes, they grow to an elevation of 400 feet. The sand blows in from the deserts in the west, and when it hits the Rockies, it has no place to go, so it has just been collecting for thousands of years. I got to Great Sand Dunes near sundown and I pulled up to the dunes and tried to walk out to them. The base of the dunes are about a half mile from the parking lot. I kicked off my flip flops and began walking and came to a river buried by sand. The water comes to the surface but there is not enough flowing water to create anything but wet sand.
The sand river
I started walking and walking out to the dunes, and the sand was very cold only about an hour after the sun stopped directly shining on it. It reaches 140 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, but it must have already been about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The air was cold too, and the wind was blowing steady, at least 30 mph, with gusts much greater. The sand was very deep and it was difficult and slow to walk out there.
Walking out to the dunes
The sand was picked up by the wind and really drove hard into me. It was so thick, you could actually see the wind, and feel the sand. It felt like hundreds of pin pricks a minute. I got about halfway to the dunes, and I was so cold and so beat that I had to turn around. I couldn't even make it. The only problem now was, heading back to the parking lot, I was now heading into the winds, and the sands are so expansive, I wasn't even sure I was facing in the correct direction or heading towards the parking lot. I felt like I was on Arrakis, it was amazing. The spice must flow. Luckily I saw some people, so I headed towards them. Due to the increasing wind and difficutly walking, it took me about 15 minutes to walk the quarter mile back to the parking lot. When I got to my car, I had to brush myself off. I was covered in sand, it was in my eyes, my hair, my mouth, my nose, my ears, in my toes, clothes, pockets and even in my camera.
At this point, it was getting real dark outside, and the sun was going down. I couldn't see the sun, because it was west beyond the dunes, but I did get some nice sunset photos.
You can view the rest of the Great Sand Dunes photos here. Great Sand Dunes was the 11th national park in the past 10 days (Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Saguaro, Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes). An amazing whirlwind. I continued east on US 160 to Walsenburg Colorado, then north on I-25 to Pueblo, where I stopped for the night.