High Dune 8/13
2.8mi RT, 750' EVG
My father and I decided to take a trip down to the San Juans to climb San Luis Peak, and since we would be in the area I thought we should finally check out the sand dunes. It had been a long time since I'd last seen the San Luis valley, so climbing High Dune would be a good way to spend a morning while on vacation. After driving to Salida up the Bighorn Canyon, we spent the night just south of Poncha Pass at the northern end of the San Luis valley. We took FS road 890 back into the Alder Creek valley which is supposedly a popular jeep route to Bonanza. There was an excellent campsite next to the creek and an old mineshaft down a side road. After setting up camp, we walked up 890 towards a larger mine that had formed some beaver ponds just upstream. At the mine I found some interesting ores, including chalcopyrite, pyrite and galena.
The next morning, we tore down camp and took CO 17 into the valley to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The drive through the valley is interesting because of the agricultural prevalence in the arid valley, and other oddities like the UFO watchtower and Colorado Gators. At the dunes parking area, we walked across Medano Creek, which due to its 100' width was only about 2" deep at most. Medano Creek must be the closest Colorado gets to an ocean, because everyone was dressed like they were spending a day at the beach. After crossing a long sand flat, we started climbing the first dunes and picked out a route up to High Dune, which was a pretty obvious summit. Climbing the piles of sand is tougher than regular climbing, and some of the dunes can be quite steep. It's tricky trying to avoid losing elevation while climbing since the topography of the dunes is hidden by the homogeneous color and shape of the sand piles.
After a while of working up the dunes, we reached the summit ridge of High Dune and stopped at the highest crest. The views are very unique having a sea of dunes cornered against the very dramatic Sangre de Christo Range. About a mile west is Star Dune, which is a little bit taller than High Dune. A few sandboarders were surfing off of the smooth slopes of the summit dune, and on the return we learned that it was much easier to run down the dunes than walk. We returned after taking a slightly different ridge system back to the creek and trailhead.
The next day we climbed San Luis Peak from the West Willow Creek TH.
My father and I decided to take a trip down to the San Juans to climb San Luis Peak, and since we would be in the area I thought we should finally check out the sand dunes. It had been a long time since I'd last seen the San Luis valley, so climbing High Dune would be a good way to spend a morning while on vacation. After driving to Salida up the Bighorn Canyon, we spent the night just south of Poncha Pass at the northern end of the San Luis valley. We took FS road 890 back into the Alder Creek valley which is supposedly a popular jeep route to Bonanza. There was an excellent campsite next to the creek and an old mineshaft down a side road. After setting up camp, we walked up 890 towards a larger mine that had formed some beaver ponds just upstream. At the mine I found some interesting ores, including chalcopyrite, pyrite and galena.
The next morning, we tore down camp and took CO 17 into the valley to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The drive through the valley is interesting because of the agricultural prevalence in the arid valley, and other oddities like the UFO watchtower and Colorado Gators. At the dunes parking area, we walked across Medano Creek, which due to its 100' width was only about 2" deep at most. Medano Creek must be the closest Colorado gets to an ocean, because everyone was dressed like they were spending a day at the beach. After crossing a long sand flat, we started climbing the first dunes and picked out a route up to High Dune, which was a pretty obvious summit. Climbing the piles of sand is tougher than regular climbing, and some of the dunes can be quite steep. It's tricky trying to avoid losing elevation while climbing since the topography of the dunes is hidden by the homogeneous color and shape of the sand piles.
After a while of working up the dunes, we reached the summit ridge of High Dune and stopped at the highest crest. The views are very unique having a sea of dunes cornered against the very dramatic Sangre de Christo Range. About a mile west is Star Dune, which is a little bit taller than High Dune. A few sandboarders were surfing off of the smooth slopes of the summit dune, and on the return we learned that it was much easier to run down the dunes than walk. We returned after taking a slightly different ridge system back to the creek and trailhead.
The next day we climbed San Luis Peak from the West Willow Creek TH.
