Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Day 49 – July 11 – Great Sand Dunes

Once we woke up, we headed up to the Zapata falls. The road to get to this said "rough road" – but we had no idea how rough until we were about a half mile up. This was possibly the roughest road we have ever driven on. It took us about 30 minutes to go 3 miles.
It was a short hike and the boys are ready for a short hikes only :-)  It was a half mile up and a half mile back – but once we got up there, we had to cross rocks and boulders in order to climb back into the canyon to see the falls.

It was also significantly cooler back in this canyon where the waterfalls were.

 


After that – we went back and hiked up to the top of High Dune.
Many people here rent sleds and/or sand boards in order to ride down the dunes. We did not do that this time because we did it when we were in White Sands in 2014. It is much more difficult than it looks – because if the board is not waxed properly – it doesn't go down the dunes easily.

Some views from the top of the sand dunes.

While this was one of our shorter hikes – it was also one of our more challenging hikes because of the terrain. However, coming down was the easiest one we have done yet. We literally just took off running down the hill and stopped and we got to the bottom :-)
Medona creek runs at the base of the sand dunes and we were able to frolic about in the water for an hour or so while David went back and hooked at the camper to get us ready to leave.
It was really the first time on this trip that playing in the water has been refreshing and not freezing.


From here, we left to go to Colorado Springs. We were planning on going to Seven Falls this evening, but in our effort to find a place to grab something to eat – we discovered that there was a parade tonight in order to celebrate the Pikes Peak or Bust rodeo that starts tomorrow.
There were a lot of horses in this rodeo parade-  to include the small pony below.  

After that, we decided to see if we had enough time to make it over to Seven Falls anyway.  We made it just in time to catch the last shuttle up to the falls.  These falls change colors due to lighting on the rocks.  They were pretty, but not overwhelming one of our favorites.  
It was cold at the top.  We had hoped to climb the stairs next to the falls, but they had closed them due to the rain that had just come through the area.  


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