Hiking Great Sand Dunes

I started the day by going outside the park to Zapata Falls. The road to the falls was quite rocky, so it’s a slow trip up to the trail head. It’s only a ½ mile hike up to the falls, but it is steep. You end up at the stream bed and have to hike the last 100 yards through the creek to see the falls which is tucked in a corner. Boy! Was that water cold! The lower part of the falls was still ice covered. Definitely worth the hike.

In the afternoon, I hiked the sand dunes, managing to climb the highest sand dune in about an hour. It was an exhausting hike, particularly when the sand was loose, two steps up and one step down. Interestingly on the north side of the dunes, the sand was wet a couple of inches under the surface, making that easier to climb. Upon reaching the top there were about six of us up there enjoying the view in all directions.

This vacation was just a short jaunt around the borders of Colorado, a great way to get away from everything. (My Dad had died just a few weeks before.) The weather was colder than we expected - we went through a tank of propane in just 10 days. What stands out is all the flowers we saw, and that we have a much better understanding of the Ancient Pueblo people after visiting ruins from all 3 subcultures. 

If you would like to see additional video and pictures, they are available on youtube.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Deer, sand dunes, and the mountains

From Chimney Rock we drove over 150 miles without a gas station, that made me nervous. We succeeded in filling up in Alamosa and then proceeded to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The Pinion Flats campground filled just before we got there, so we ended up staying at the Oasis right outside the gates of the park. That at least gave us electricity and water. I found out that both campgrounds are reservable, which I would do, since all the other campgrounds are a good distance away. In the afternoon, we went to the visitor center, took at the dunes and river and then went up the Medano Pass Primitive Road. On the river, we could observe the waves that come down the river as small sand barriers are overrun. 

Waves on Medano Creek

Chimney Rock, New Mexico

Chimney Rock

We found the Riana Campground on a reservoir, near Chimney Rock, a great federal campground with water and electricity. This is one of the few hikes that is labeled as a Gem Attraction by AAA. I could see why. It’s a 3 mile hike round trip, but fairly steep. But the golden rocks of Chimney Rock contrast with the red rocks that surround it. The 360 degree view is terrific. Chimney Rock was one of the fire signal points for the Chaco Culture.

Albuquerque Biopark

Matchie's Tree Kangaroo

We went to the Biopark zoo today. It’s a small zoo, but has a large variety of animals. Several species of animals we had never seen before, like the Zimbabwan Klipspringer, a small deer, and Matchie’s Tree Kangaroo, which can climb trees. We especially enjoyed some of the African animals bringing to mind our safaris of the past. The reptile house was a highlight and then as we were leaving, the flamingos were having a conversation.

Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monumnent

Tent Rocks

We headed to Albuquerque, a place we’ve visited many a time, staying at the Bernalillo KOA about 20 minutes outside the city. It rained on most of our trip down, but the rain stopped allowing us to visit Kasha KatuweTent Rocks National Monument. The geology here is rather unique: cone shaped tent formations. Pumice, ash and tuft deposits left from volcanic explosions. Above are layers of volcanic material of varying colors and above those are various hoodoos protected by their boulder caps. A very scenic area that can be explored on two trails. We only had time for the cave trail, a relatively easy trail. With more time, one could take the more strenuous canyon trail.

Surrounding Hoodoos

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

It’s about a 1 ½ hour drive to Chaco Culture National Historical Park from Bloomfield, the last 10 miles on what is a poorly maintained, which is subject to flash floods, but it is well worth it. Be sure to do one of the ranger guided walks here, it explains so much more than you can learn on your own. We forgot to buy a guidebook before we toured the ruins, a big mistake. The signage doesn't explain much while the tour book explains things in detail: why are these building here, what did it mean?

The best theory is that the great houses of Chaco Canyon were a religious and cultural center for the Chacoan Culture. The people created massive, multistory buildings here and several wide roads that spoked out from here to other settlements in the Southwest. While the houses here are massive, the surrounding area could not have supported a large population with food, so the permanent population was small, but many people came here for ceremonies in the buildings and great kivas. The masonry in these buildings is exquisite with rough stone on the inside and a flat veneer style masonry on the outside.

Great Kiva

Why here? Apparently the Fajada Butte in the canyon had significance. There is evidence of an ancient man-made earth ramp that came up to the butte, steps in the rock, and numerous petroglyphs and astronomical items. Our ranger made an analogy to Mecca – it was the religious center for historical reasons, not that it was easy to live there.

Fajada Butte with partial ramp on right

Navaho National Monument and Salmon Ruin

Betatakin Overlook

Time to head to New Mexico, but we stop first at Navaho National Monument. From the visitor center there is a walk to the Betatakin overlook. While you only see the pueblo ruins from a distance, many of the building here have been restored with roofs, giving a more complete picture of a pueblo. This village had about 125 people in 20-25 family groups.

Closer look

We traveled to Bloomfield New Mexico, where we stopped at the Salmon Ruins, named for the family that preserved these ruins for many years. The unique aspect of these ruins was that they were built by the Chaco culture and then after a hundred years of abandonment, the Mesa Verde culture converted the buildings to their use. The most obvious change was round rooms (Kivas) being created inside of Chaco rectangular rooms.

Kiva built inside a Chaco room

Monument Valley

We’re staying at Goulding’s Campground, which I highly recommend because the sites have trees, the cliff provides shade, and you have a beautiful view of Monument Valley. 

Honeymoon Arch

We did the all-day tour of Mystic Canyon and Monument Valley, a repeat of a tour we did several years ago. I recommend a tour rather than seeing the valley in your own car because you get to see many areas that are not open to the public. We even had the same guide. What was unique about this day was the number of flowers we found in Mystic valley. It had rained a lot in November and March leading to this profusion of flowers. 

Flower in profusion

Here too, we found many Mesa Verde style cliff dwellings, several natural arches, and petroglyphs on the canyon walls. After an excellent hamburger lunch in the shades of the cliff, we went on to Monument Valley. Here we saw the classic buttes that where in many John Ford movies. On the tour you also see several more arches: Big Hogan, Sun’s Eye, and Ear of the Wind.

John Ford Point

Edge of the Cedars State Park

Sash made from Macaw feathers

Next day we headed south, stopping at Newspaper Rock, one of the most famous of the Petroglyphs in the area. Our primary stop was Edge ofthe Cedars State Park. The museum here does an excellent job of explaining the Ancient Puebloans. It points out that there were actually three different cultures in the Four Corners area, each with a unique style of architecture and pottery: Chaco, Mesa Verde, and Kayenta traditions. This understanding was further strengthened over the next few days. In the museum was a sash made from Macaw feathers from about 850 AD. It demonstrates the extent of trade, since Macaws are found in Southern Mexico. They also had a pottery jar which shows a hunter shooting a stork.

 

Hunter shooting Stork

In Bluff, we stopped at Fort Bluff historical site. While the cabins in this park are all newly built, each was crafted by descendants of the original families. Each has an audio track telling a story about that family’s coming to this area of Utah. Most were Mormon settlers who settled here to farm or ranch. One story was about a woman, who originally with no training, became the midwife for over 100 births in the region.

Fort Bluff Cabin

Canyonlands

Las Sal Mountains from Dead Horse Point

If you prefer a 7 1/2 minute video of the trip it is available on youtube.

While we’ve visited most of the places on this trip before, we wanted to try a few new sights as well as visit some of our favorites. Our campground was OK RV campground in Moab, an older campground with trees and good internet. Our favorite park here is Arches, but this time we decided to revisit Dead Horse Point State Park and the Island in the Sky Portion of Canyonlands National Park.

Dead Horse Point is named because of the legend that cowboys rounded up wild mustangs and then fenced off the neck of the point. They chose the horses they wanted, but left the others deserted on the point. The point has several beautiful viewpoints. From the visitor center we took the trail to the Colorado River overlook and then on the point itself, viewed the Dead Horse Point overlook.

Mesa Arch

 Then onto the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands (the Maze and the Needles being other portions of the park). The visitor center is rather simple here, so we went on directly to our short hikes. The short hike to Mesa Arch provides you a spectacular view of the canyon and the La Sal mountains. At the end of the road is the Grand View Point overlook. You can see several levels to the canyon below you. Deep within the Canyon, out of view,  the Colorado and Green Rivers join.