Day 51: Del Norte to Great Sand Dunes

June 18, 2010

I got away from the motel in Del Norte at 9:15. It was already warm and sunny with a south wind. First I went 5 miles southeast on US 160, then turned east onto county road 5N. It promptly crosses the Rio Grande for the last time.

My last view of Rio Grande. The river goes south towards Alamosa. I go east towards Great Sand Dunes.

This part of the San Luis valley is mostly irrigated farms. The population is predominantly Hispanic. The San Luis Valley is the northernmost part of New Spain, a large area that was settled by Spanish farmers and ruled by Spain from 1535 until 1821. The King of Spain offered large land grants to any Spanish family willing to emigrate to New Spain. Most had been here for generations before the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo transferred the territory from Mexico to the United States. The treaty obligated the U.S. to honor property rights of the former Mexican citizens. But the U.S. government instead sold much of the land to new American settlers.

St. Francis of Assisi church, built in 1881.

Adobe architecture is common in the San Luis Valley, same as in New Mexico.

County road 5N is perfectly straight and almost perfectly flat for 23 miles to the village of Mosca. Most of the land in this part of the valley is irrigated farms. Potatoes seem to be the main crop.

Giant crop circle watered by center-pivot irrigation.

County road 5N ends at highway 17, where I jogged north a mile to county road 6N. Along highway 17 is the Mosca store, the only store on today's route. Lunch was a frozen burrito.

I've had a view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains all day. But after lunch the sun angle was better and I got much closer. The 14,000-foot (4200m) mountains rise abruptly east of the 7500-foot (2300m) San Luis valley. Like most places around here, the Sangre de Cristo mountains were named by the first Spanish settlers. I think the name reflects their devotion to the Roman Catholic church, not any physical resemblance to the blood of Christ.

The farms continue for about 5 miles on county road 6N. Then the farms give way to sagebrush and the road climbs gently towards the mountains and Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Fires in the high country of Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Just outside the national park I got a campsite for 2 nights at the huge Oasis campground. It's run by a Forest Service concession. They have a store, restaurant, and showers, none of which are present at the campground inside the park (which is probably already full anyway). The campground is at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, on the edge of a Pinyon forest with a view of the desert below. Unfortunately, the campground is a 150-foot climb from the main road on a rough gravel road.

I arrived at the campground at 2 PM. At about 5 PM I went into the park. The first stop was at the visitor center to watch the film.

Not far past the visitor center is the dunes trailhead. I hiked across the creek and partway up the giant dune. The dunes looked great in the low evening sun. These are the tallest sand dunes in North America. The dune in the picture below is 650 feet high (197m), but another dune is 750 feet (227m) high.

Road to the dunes traihead. See the people?

You have to cross Medano creek to get to the dunes.

It was a fun excursion on the dunes. After the dune walk it was an easy 7 miles mostly downhill to get back to the campground.

Today's high temperature was 85F and the evening was pleasantly warm despite being at 8000+ feet elevation. Mosquitoes were very bad at the campground. I spent most of the evening zipped inside my screen tent.

Distance: 60.1 mi. (96 km)

Climbing: 1150 ft. (348 m)

Hiking: 2 mi. (3.2 km)

Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 2,355 miles (3,790 km)

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