COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – On our last full day in Colorado Springs yesterday, we drove in the F-150 with Michael, Lizzy, and Max to the Great Sand Dunes N.P. about 170 miles south and west in the San Luis Valley.
The dunes have been a Griswold family favorite since our time in Colorado 30 years ago. In May 1994, I camped with Emily (6 at the time) and Michael (almost 3) to give Elizabeth a break while she looked after our newborn son Paul. We returned the next summer as a family before we moved away from Colorado to eventually settle in Northern Virginia.
If you haven’t seen the dunes before, they’re an amazing sight: sand dunes piled as high as 700 feet above the valley floor, with Medano Creek running alongside the dunes in the spring and early summer, fed by snow melt from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rising to the east and north.
On our visit yesterday, we were able to leave the crowds behind by driving a few miles up the 4-wheel-drive-only “Primitive Road” to the Sand Pit picnic area. We enjoyed a stretch of the creek and the dunes all to ourselves for about an hour before another family showed up.
If you visit the Great Sand Dunes, be sure to visit sometime between April and June when the creek is flowing. The water is refreshing, especially when the sand is starting to get hot. When the snow melt is at its peak later in the spring, gentle, regular “waves” will come down the creek.
While we were visiting Colorado, we left the RV at a Keystone dealer in Roswell for a few minor adjustments. After a 420-mile drive back to Roswell today, we plan to resume our RV adventure tomorrow with a drive to Alamogordo, NM.
Dashboard:
Days on the road: 63; Miles towing the RV: 2,924; RV parks stayed at: 19; National parks visited: 6.
The road ahead (Lord willing): White Sands N.P.
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