May 12-13 - Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

Leaving Mesa Verde, we headed east across route 160. Country roads are more interesting than Interstates. As we drove  through small towns, we saw some very vibrant towns, some not so much, some are mere ghost towns. The towns are so far in between each other and low populations that Walmart’s haven’t ruined the small towns. 

As we climbed from Durango to Del Norte, Colorado, we could see the San Juan mountains to our right. Lots of snow still there. In fact, some people were X-country skiing still. 

Next we saw the Rocky Mountains majestic even from a distance. 



Finally, our destination- BLM land near the Great Sand Dunes NP and Preserve. The mountains you see are the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, elevation 8,000 ft. Temps in high 60s in the day, 30s at night. Glad we have our furnace and lots of quilts!



The Great Sand Dunes were so hard to believe they were there with mountains behind. The tallest dunes in North America are the centerpiece in wetlands, grasslands, forests, alpine lakes and tundra.

The best part for us was that we could take the dogs on the dunes.

The Park also had a nature hike Lenny and Banjo were allowed to walk. Pretty quaking aspens lined the trail.

As we were heading back to the RV, we decided to explore Zapata Falls. Probably wasn’t our smartest decision. The road was VERY rough and was 3 miles up the side of a mountain. 15 MPH was the fastest we could go. When we got to the top, the view was nice with the sun casting shadows.

There wasn’t much water coming off the falls but there was a cave you could walk into if you wanted to get your feet wet.

The sunset gave us some pretty colors.

Kansas will be the next stop - Horse Theif Reservoir in Jetmore, KS.

Saw two mule deer driving away from the Great Sand Dunes.

From there, it didn’t take long to reach the Plains. No more mountains.

Horse Thief Reservoir, Jetmore, KS, is a small recreation area north of Dodge City. It was so windy there were white caps on the reservoir. That continued all night, but we had a nice sunset.