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Great Sand Dunes and Pikes Peak, Colorado
August 28, 2007 | 22 Comments
In Early June, we went on a roadtrip to the four national parks in Colorado. We covered 2000 miles in 9 days, and encountered some of the most spectacular sights this geologically diverse region has to offer.
Colorado Relief Map
The orange line shows the areas we drove through, beginning and ending at Denver. The dots show the four national parks we visited. The red arrow at the bottom points to Great Sand Dunes National Park in south central Colorado. The red arrow at the top points to Pikes Peak, near Colorado Springs.
Anti-Clockwise:
Rocky Mountain National Park (Pics HERE)
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (Pics HERE)
Mesa Verde National Park (Pics HERE)
Great Sand Dunes National Park
We also drove through the San Juan Parkway (Pics HERE)
You’ve just driven through one of the most scenic mountain routes you will ever encounter. After traversing the San Juan mountains, you are in the San Luis valley with miles and miles of flat land and sagebrush. Suddenly, in the distance, rising abrupty from the valley, below the gathering thunderclouds, is this.
What look like little hillocks in the far distance are the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains, rising abruptly from the valley to over 14,000 feet. In front of them, is a wall of sand, covering 39 square miles, and about 750 feet above the valley floor. From miles away, this is indeed a startling sight. Sangre De Cristo means ‘Blood of Christ’, thus named by Spanish explorers because of the play of light on the peaks at certain times of day, giving them a ruby-red hue. Take a look.
These sand dunes, thousands of miles away from the ocean, are the tallest dunes in north America. They are nature’s sculptures, created by water and wind.
The San Luis valley is flanked by the San Juan range on the west and the Sangre de Cristo range on the east.
The sand deposits of the Rio Grande river and its tributaries, flowing through the San Luis Valley are picked up by winds blowing from both directions. Over the ages, westerly winds picked up sand particles as they flew over the San Juan Mountains from the river flood plain. As the wind lost power before crossing the Sangre de Cristo Range, it slowed down and started accumulating sand on the on the eastern base of the Sangre de Cristo range. This continues, and the dunes are slowly growing by the wind that daily changes the shape of the dunes. There are areas of black sand which are deposits of magnetite, a crystalline black oxide of iron.
The sand drops to the valley floor and is held in place by water flowing from the Sangre de Cristos. So over the course of millenia, the dunes have built up to where they are today. The dunes are continually evolving sculptures. Overall, they maintain a remarkably stable form because they are so moist throughout (from the rain and snow). But the surface layers of sand dry and flow with the wind in ever-changing patterns.
Check out this aerial image from NASA.
Medano Creek, flowing in front of the dunes, is one of the streams that is vital to his ecosystem.
There are several streams flowing on the perimeter of the dunes. The streams erode the edge of the dune field, and sand is carried downstream. The water disappears into the ground, depositing sand on the surface. Winds pick up the deposits of sand, and blow them up onto the dune field once again.
Digging a few inches into the dunes even at their peaks reveals wet sand. If the streams were to dry up, the dunes would disappear; in fact part of the motivation of turning the Monument into a National Park was the extra protection of the water, which Colorado’s cities and agriculture covet.
from Wikipedia
The main attraction of the Great Sand Dunes National Park is the ‘beach’ with the shallow creek, where families hang out. The place is run over by squealing, splashing picknickers, many still in their diapers.
A thunderstorm is imminent.
This is just a small section of the park. There are a lot of natural features and wildlife to experience and enjoy in the upper reaches of the mountains.
Some pictures
HERE (check out the frozen waterfall)
HERE,
and
HERE
See the sand in different light scenarios HERE.
We spent just an hour at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, on a very cloudy afternoon. That included a short film at the visitor’s center.
We were in a hurry to get to Colorado Springs, and Pikes Peak.
The main attraction at Pikes Peak is the Cog Railway. It is one of the handful of cog rail systems left in the world. It is also the world’s highest cog train, with the 8.9 mile roundtrip taking you from 6571 feet at Manitou Springs, to Pikes Peak, at 14,110 feet. (More about Pikes Peak HERE)
A cog
How a cog railway differs from a standard system
At Manitou Station
The initial part of the ascent in through lush, forested areas.
A lot of climbers hike up to the top of Pikes Peak.
“Walking up Pikes Peak is like traveling from the dusty plains of Texas to the Arctic tundra in 13 miles. The temperature drops. Precipitation doubles. The backdrop changes from cactus to pines to snowdrifts and bare rock.
In a place where the landscape shoots almost two miles into the sky, changing elevation creates ecosystems stacked on top of each other like stadium seats. Every 1,500 feet brings a new community of plants and animals, called a life zone, specifically suited to the climate. The Pikes Peak region encompasses five life zones: the grasslands, the foothills, the montane forest, the subalpine forest and the alpine tundra.” ~ Colorado Gazette
After 12,000 feet, the treeline ends, and the alpine tundra ecosystem begins.
The tops of tall cold mountains are alpine tundra. The most distinctive characteristic of the tundra soil is its permafrost, a permanently frozen layer of ground often 2000 feet thick. Shallow rooted tundra plants and microorganisms grow in the permafrost. Animals are adapted to handle cold winters and to breed and raise young quickly in the short summers. Alpine animal life includes the mountain goat, big-horned sheep, pika, marmot, and the ptarmigan, a grouselike bird. Flies are scarce but butterflies, beetles, and grasshoppers are abundant.
Alpine plant communities consist of mat-making and cushion-forming plants … These plants are adapted to gusting winds, heavy snows, and widely ranging temperatures. They carry on photosynthesis under brilliant light in short periods of daylight.
It takes a hundred years for a clump of tundra grass to spread a couple of feet. We saw a few marmots up there.
It is freeeeeezing and windy up there. Temperatures at th peak of summer seldom exceed 40F. The thin air contains only 60% of the oxygen available at sea level. Snow is a possibility any time year-round, and thunderstorms are common in the summer, bringing hail and winds gusts occasionally in excess of 100 m/h (160 km/h). Lightning is especially dangerous above the treeline.
View from the top of Pikes Peak on a clear day
Pikes Peak provides a very unusual vantage point, as illustrated by this relief map of the United States.
The country is rather neatly demarcated into the mountainous west and the vast prairie on the east.
Due to its height, and its location near the eastern edge of the Rockies, on a clear day, it provides a great view for many miles to the east, far into the Great Plains of Colorado.
When it is not cloudy, to the east you can see all the way across Colorado into Kansas.
Facing the west and northeast towards the Rocky mountains, it looks like this.
It’s a steep ride down.
Back at Colorado Springs, we visited the Garden of the Gods, with its natural rock formations, and nature trails.
Filed Under: Cog-Railway, colorado, Colorado-Springs, Great-Sande-Dunes-National-park, lifestyle, national park, national-parks, Photo Essays, Pikes-Peak, TRAVEL
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22 Comments
wow! you guys are an adventurous lot. i am bookmarking this pg… i gotta do something like this next yr.. not just drink and see shows at vegas!
wanted to ask u guys.. was is really hot during June?
( no smart alec answes please :tongue:)
now that you ask, it was ELECTRIC.
it was in the 90s, but because of the high elevation, it wasn’t that bad. – b.
Can feel the cold, crisp, clear environs, or am I imagining things because that’s how they they are supposed to be?
hmm…I envy you guys! Really a wonderful trip! I am so much in fond of travelling but after having kids I hardly crossed the chennai border past 6 years
Great to see those pics!
Each picture is lovely, folks! The trip to garden of the Gods must have been amazing, it looks like really a great place to visit. Cog rail journey sounds really exciting too
The first picture was breathtakingly fantastic!
All pics are beautifull. I wish that I get an opportunity to visit Colorado. Envy you guys.
Wow!! nice pictures! Bee you are lucky to visit these places. The great dunes NP is really good. I felt as if I was watching some english cow boy movie! ;;) :dance:
We drove there from Minneapolis, loved Pikes Peak and Aspen too. I have a magnet which says “I survived the Pikes Peak”!;D
I had trouble breathing up there too.Beautiful pics.
what a ride
the ‘beach’ looks like a great place to hangout
That is so heavenly beautiful. We too need to go one such trip..to atleast shed the pounds we have gained, more so after indulging in food blogging..see, it is the fault of wonderful bloggers like you
Like hubby says “It is somehow never your own fault..amazing pious one!” 
Jokes aside, thanks for sharing.
Wonderful pictures! I need to travel that part of the world soon.
[...] Great Sand Dunes and Pikes Peak, Colorado [...]
[...] Great Sand Dunes and Pikes Peak, Colorado [...]
[...] Great Sand Dunes and Pikes Peak, Colorado [...]
[...] Great Sand Dunes and Pikes Peak, Colorado [...]
These are some riveting pics! Thanks for sharing.
the trip sounds like a lot of fun! beautiful, no awesome pictures.
And the last picture? Restaurant?
it’s a gate at garden of the gods. – b.
woooooooooow…….. awwwwwwsum post… i loved the sand dunes national park…looks amazing…the cog railway reminded me of going up the stansehorn in switzerland halfway on cog railway, we were told its the highest cog railway in the world…dont remember what altitude it was at…
i absolutely loved…the excerpt on pikespeak from the colorado gazette… just awsome…makes me wanna c it….
have a good holiday and come back with lots more pics like these…:)
What an amazing trip it must have been! Garden of the Gods is captivating.
wow, im very surprized with these dunes. i ride guads on them, but i have never riden these ones. cant wait