Got Sand?
Mini-Trip Report of Colleen and Matt's climb on the second tallest sand dune in North America. December 2004
I don't remember the actual year it was that my parents took me on a road trip from Oklahoma to the Great Sand Dune National Monument in Colorado. However, at the time I was a young boy and my only lasting memory from it was that my parents wouldn't let me climb to the top. They said it was too windy, and I'll admit, I remember wearing shorts and feeling the pelting of sand on my exposed legs and wishing I was back at the hotel swimming in the pool.
Here's a few pictures as you're nearing the park. The first is of a few 14ers (Blanca, Little Bear, Ellingwood), second is of a sign, and the third, well, of the entrance, fourth is a broad picture of the dunes.
Skipping forward in time to the end of 2004, after summiting nearly 30 14ers, when Colleen and I drove by the sand dunes on our way to her sisters college graduation one thought prevailed..."Let's climb High Dune!"
Colleen has a similar story about how her parents wouldn't let her climb higher than they could see, and that amounted to the first dune. She wanted more but would have to wait until this December when her experiences would be re-written after marrying a boy named Matt.
We arrived to the Visitors Center late, around 1:30pm, where we noticed a lot of improvements regarding things we could play with in the gift shop. They had this one machine that imitated blowing of the wind, and inside of it was a lot of sand, and you could play mother nature and change the wind pattern and watch the sand dunes change shape and size. The entrance fee was cheap, only $3 a person, and we got some beta on the highest dunes in the "Dune Field" and made a decision to go for High Dune.
High Dune is the second highest dune in the park, (and in all of North America for that matter), rising over 650ft and about 1 mile each way. Now, before you say, "That doesn't sound very high..." or "That doesn't sound very far..." I will humbly smile and ask you to try and climb it. If you thought climbing on snow was hard, try climbing sand at 8,500ft in elevation. Once you take a step, slowly your foot starts to sink deeper into the ground, meanwhile sand from around your shoe starts filling in on top, essentially burying your leg and foot deeper into the sand. The longer you wait to move again, the worse it gets. Meanwhile, sand is blasting you from whichever way the wind seems to be blowing and the sun is bearing down on you and reflecting off the sand only to dehydrate you further. Now, you say, "But you climbed it in December!". Granted, the temperature was only 35 degrees out in the late afternoon, but we were sweating and glad we weren't attempting this in summer when the sand gets up to around 140 degrees! Ok, now back to the trip report.
The tallest dune in the park is called Star Dune. Very few people actually make it to the top because in order to get to it you must climb High Dune first, then walk another two miles along dune ridges that are constantly changing and climb another hundred vertical feet to it's summit. No thanks.
After changing clothes we started off at 2:20pm. Here's a picture of us getting ready to go with the dunes in the background.
Making our way up the first dune wasn't that bad, we had a lot of footsteps to follow.
We quickly realized how out of shape we were and realized why not many people climb to the top. It's a long way. I captured our shadows as we walked along the ridge of a minor sand dune.
I took this picture of Colleen as she stands on top of High Dune.
Finally, after weaving our ways across many dunes and avoiding any mishaps, we arrive at the top of High Dune. It took us an hour and ten minutes to get to the top.
Coming down was a lot easier. I ran down the side of this steep dune, while Colleen decided that even though it's sand, she could still break her arm and slid down on her rear. The sand was making some interesting sounds as she scooted. Haha. This should also give you an idea of the size of the sand dunes we are talking about here. Notice how small Colleen is, and realize that is just one dune on the way to the top.
Of course I had to act like I was riding the hump of a large sand monster.
The only way to leave a place like this: write our names in the sand.
Am I seeing things? Is that a penguin attempting to fly!? Oh no, it's not a mirage, it's a Magpie.
Looking back, I would highly recommend doing this hike in Fall/Winter as opposed to Spring/Summer. Hiking to High Dune was fun, and I would say you need about 1L of water as it takes about two hours round trip.
--Matt
Time:
| Drive |
Ascent |
On Summit |
Descent |
Drive |
Total |
| 3.5 h |
1 h |
15 min |
45 min |
3.5 h |
2 h |
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