Great Sand Dunes
National Monument. It’s amazing to see these kinds of dunes in a valley at
8,000 ft. in the Rockies. The tallest dune is 755 ft. high. The beautiful
visitor center is a great educational experience with hands on exhibits and activities
for kids. Of course the best activity is playing in the dunes.
The campground has small but spacious sites perfect for tents and small rigs
like ours. There are restrooms but no showers or utilities. 
We found a great
site with a view of the dunes and were entertained watching people, just little
specs out there climbing around on the dunes. 
The days are warm in August so we hiked into the dunes in the early evening,
toes sinking into cool sand.
Jim tries dune skiing.
I climbed up a dune and sat down to take it all
in, high, green mountains to the east and waves of sand sailing into the
sunset. I liked the solitude and peacefulness,
the anonymity of being just one of those little specs in the dunes. I find sunflowers boldly taking root in the dunes.
There are also trails to follow into the mountains through flickering green
aspens and flowering meadows. We hiked to Mosca Pass, a 4.5 mile, 1500 ft.
climb accompanied by a little mountain stream.
From the pass we can see
Blanca Peak at 14,345 ft. only another 3,000 ft. higher.
Cochetopa Pass. We spent two nights at
the Dunes then headed for Buena Vista with a stop near the town of Saguache to
ride our bikes up highway 114 to North Cochetopa Pass at 10,149 ft. It’s a
great bike ride; wonderful rock formations, light traffic, fir and aspen
forests, and a good steady 6 mile climb to the pass after 16 miles of gradual
ascent up the Saguache Creek valley. When we reached the pass there was no time to enjoy the lunch we brought. Afternoon thunderstorms began to develop and rumble with thunder. A few bold lightning strikes sent us on a mad dash down the mountain and we never stopped pedaling those 22 miles as rain fell on peaks on both sides of the highway. The storms closed in and sprinkles began as we made our last 2-mile sprint for the Sprinter. Oh, but we had a good time!
Buena Vista KOA. We finished the day
with a stay at the Buena Vista KOA to visit our friends and KOA owners, Tommy
and Sarah. They have a beautiful park on the side of a hill with inspiring
views of the Collegiate Peaks. The park is natural, spacious, and blends with
the mountain scenery. If you go through Buena Vista stay with them and enjoy
the area for a few days. They’re very nice people.
Camp Hale. We moved on
towards Vail. We stayed overnight at Camp Hale on Highway 24 between Leadville
and Red Cliff. Here is a view of the Eagle River Valley from our forest camp site. It’s a small national forest campground at the site of a US Army training facility built in 1942. The soldiers stationed here during WWII were
trained in mountain climbing, cold-weather combat and survival skills, Alpine
and Nordic skiing. It was a large camp housing about 14,000 to 15,000 men at
the height of its operation. Only one partial concrete structure which was the
field house remains today in this beautiful valley. There is a memorial and
historical kiosks with photos. It’s a very interesting part of history.
We'll go on to Vail to see the USA Pro Cycling bike race time trial. You'll see race photos in next post!
Jackie
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