Snow on Sand
After the Incident of the Scary Road to Chaco Canyon, I've been apprehensive about another road trip to a southwestern national park in the middle of nowhere. But this week we went to Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. A long drive, but all the roads were fully paved and had accurate signs.
We picked a beautiful sunny fall day. And once again, we found when we got there that strong weather had preceeded us the day before. A blizzard had dumped a ton of snow, leaving the mountain peaks snow covered, and snow at the edges of the roads.
The roads were clear, though, so that was no problem. October sun had dried the pavement, leaving only ridges of snow at the the edges. No scary car ride.
But when we got to the dune field we could see what was happening to all the snow up on the peaks. The October sun was melting it and sending it down the canyons to form a river in front of the dunes.
The park allows visitors to climb and slide and frolic on these great sandy slopes -- it's the big attraction of this strange desert place at the foot of the mountains. But does that look like a river two barefoot old people could cross to get to the sandy dunes?
The snow crusted sand bars looked manageable, but the ripples disguised calf deep water. And it's snowmelt -- it's cold. We debated, and discussed, and dithered and in the end sat on this side and admired the awesome mighty dunes on that side with our shoes on and dignity intact.
But people did go across. After the deep part in front, it was not too bad, although walking barefoot across snow-covered sandbars looked absolutely toe chilling.
We were happy to watch them go across and up the sand dunes to become tiny dots across the way against the huge field of shifting sand. We enjoyed the sunny day and the jaw dropping sight of the sculpted dunes and rugged mountains.
The day was gorgeous and the trip was long but uneventful. The sights were awesome and we learned about weird geology and how the dunes were formed and had a great day.
And even better, we came home with dry, warm feet.
We picked a beautiful sunny fall day. And once again, we found when we got there that strong weather had preceeded us the day before. A blizzard had dumped a ton of snow, leaving the mountain peaks snow covered, and snow at the edges of the roads.
The roads were clear, though, so that was no problem. October sun had dried the pavement, leaving only ridges of snow at the the edges. No scary car ride.
But when we got to the dune field we could see what was happening to all the snow up on the peaks. The October sun was melting it and sending it down the canyons to form a river in front of the dunes.
The park allows visitors to climb and slide and frolic on these great sandy slopes -- it's the big attraction of this strange desert place at the foot of the mountains. But does that look like a river two barefoot old people could cross to get to the sandy dunes?
The snow crusted sand bars looked manageable, but the ripples disguised calf deep water. And it's snowmelt -- it's cold. We debated, and discussed, and dithered and in the end sat on this side and admired the awesome mighty dunes on that side with our shoes on and dignity intact.
But people did go across. After the deep part in front, it was not too bad, although walking barefoot across snow-covered sandbars looked absolutely toe chilling.
We were happy to watch them go across and up the sand dunes to become tiny dots across the way against the huge field of shifting sand. We enjoyed the sunny day and the jaw dropping sight of the sculpted dunes and rugged mountains.
The day was gorgeous and the trip was long but uneventful. The sights were awesome and we learned about weird geology and how the dunes were formed and had a great day.
And even better, we came home with dry, warm feet.
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