Great Sand Dunes + Colorado Gator Wrestlin

Every year for Memorial Day I take that weekend off and head south to the Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, Co.  Located 35 miles northeast of Alamosa, it can be reached by U.S. 160 and Colorado 150 from the south, or from Colorado 17 and County Lane 6 from the west.

To get there, take I-25 to Walsenburg then head west on US 160, north on state highway 150. For a more scenic drive from Denver or Colorado Springs, you may also get on US 285 south, then state highway 17 south, then County Lane 6 east.  From Albuquerque, drive north on I-25 to Santa Fe, then north on US 285 to Alamosa.

If you are camping on a busy weekend like Memorial Day, I recommend going up on Thursday afternoon as by Friday morning, most if not all of the campsites will be occupied.  There are some small shade trees in the main campground which you will appreciate during the day.  There are bear boxes provided and the campground is very strict on cleanliness of the site (particularly when it comes to food and coolers) as they don’t want Yogi coming around.

While at the dunes, there are several activities that keep your days filled with fun things to do.  Tackling the dunes themselves are an accomplishment of which I recommend attempting in the morning while the sand and temperatures are cooler.  Afternoons can be scorching but the cold water of Medano creek will cool your toes.  Depending on your fitness level, it could take between 30 mins and 1.5 hrs to make it up the first mountain of sand only to realize that once on top, you will see dunes for miles.

http://www.nps.gov/grsa/parknews/upload/visitor_guide_screenview.pdf

Other things to do there…..

Medano Pass Trail is 4WD only and is a fun wheelin trail with several campsites to it’s side with creeks and beaver dams.

Zapata Falls is a short drive outside of the park and is a 1/2 mile hike from the parking area.  Water is cold with a nice ice glacier just under the falls.  Swimming isn’t allowed and I don’t anticipate your feet could stand the chill for more than 15 mins.   

Colorado Gator Farm is a 20 min drive where you could spend most of the afternoon looking at the fish hatchery and the hundreds of gators that they have.  For a fee you can enroll in their Gator Handling class http://www.gatorfarm.com/class.html and Wrestle a gator.

The UFO Watch Tower is 5.5 miles up the road.  An interesting place to visit although I didn’t quite see any UFOs during my trip.  Chances are better at night I suppose.

Finally, there are several hot spring pools around the area and then there’s Alamosa for lunch.