Great Sand Dunes National Park

Day two of our trip consisted of a day trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park:

https://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm

We started from Colorado Springs which is a 2 hour and 40 minute drive.  Hence, we rose and we shined at 5:45 AM and were on the road by 6:30 AM.  Our ETA was 9:00 AM but thanks to Brad’s high quality driving we shaved off almost half an hour.  One thing that may go underappreciated is just driving the big open roads in Colorado.  The speeds limits were 75 mph and in the early morning there was hardly any traffic and wide open views.  Relaxing!

The park itself opens at 8:30 AM in the summer as stated on the website.  We arrived around that time and decided to take small breakfast break at the Oasis Lodge which is also where we had planned to rent SANDBOARDS. Brad thought we could subsist on one granola bar each, but luckily Erin convinced him otherwise. You will definitely be wanting energy for the workout that is the sand dunes! We split an amply sized breakfast for one between the both of us including a pancake, ham, eggs, and hash browns for $13 and change including tax and tip.  Bathrooms were available as well!  Erin was pleased.  We then went to the rental counter for sandboards on the outside patio and rented our equipment.  We decided to go with one sandboard and one sandsled because we weren’t sure how quickly we might master the boarding learning curve as we’d never snowboarded before. Total cost $40, which was $20 for each board.  For the boards to slide on the sand, they require waxing so we were given two slabs of wax as well.

Off to the sand dunes!  Just 5 minutes down the road, we arrived at the park entrance.  The ranger at the station had us fork over $20 for admission to the park.  Brad asked if there was anything not to miss at the park and the ranger curtly stated, “It’s a giant sandbox, go play.”  Uh, ok!  Cool!  So we did.

We parked right outside the sand dunes, lotioned up because we are paler than a pail and set out into the dunes.   Of note, websites said that is about 3/4 miles to the nearest sled-able sand dune and this proved accurate, what do you know.  The first hill is a bunny hill.  We quickly joined our fellow beginners and warily tried out the sandboards, slicking the bottom with the wax.  Erin was a natural on the board.  Brad tried the sand sled.  Moved like an anchored boat.  We moved on to the medium-sized hills which were another 100 feet away with some incline.  The dunes were impressive, the tallest in America after all.  Eventually, we sought to hike up some of the higher dunes.  We chose the rightward leading path which in the end led us away from Star Dune, the tallest dune of all, but we still made it up perty high.

Good views were had.

We had summited several dunes on the path to our high dune and thus we boarded and sledded down most of the way.  In the end, we enjoyed the sandBOARD more than the sandSLED.  The learning curve proved smaller than expected and we obtained greater speeds on the board.  That said, on an adequately steep hill the sled was enjoyable as well.

The websites also mention that the sand can get very hot. We wore tennis shoes and socks which were often a necessity due to the sand burning our feet, although there were times we could walk barefoot (and you can’t wear shoes while sandboarding). We also recommend bringing lots of water and sun tan lotion, even if you aren’t pale like us.

Thus ended our sand dunes trip.  Also, of note on the way down the winds picked up and pummeled us with high speed sands of doom.  At one point Brad thought we might die.  Good thing we had the sandboards for shields.  We made it out alive.  Hence this blog post.

Some websites recommend getting to lower ground by afternoon as that is when the thunderstorms tend to hit. Indeed, the rain clouds began to congregate over the dunes as we drove away.

Rain clouds over the sand dunes

All in all we were at the dunes for nearly 4 hours from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

As we exited the park, we returned our board and sled, although unfortunately one of our wax slabs fell casualty to the elements. The Oasis was forgiving and did not charge us.

If we had to do it again, we would.  Also, the park is a lot bigger than just the dunes.  If we had the time, we recommend camping, as the stars are rumored to sparkle at night over the dunes.