We Visit Our First Colorado National Parks

After leaving Pfeifer, we were able to make our way all the way to Loveland, CO, just outside Rocky Mountain N.P., the first of four Colorado national parks we would visit.

Headin' up the mountain

After spending the night, we headed into the park the next morning and stopped by the visitor’s center to collect the park stamp for our book.

Alpine tundra lava cliffs

We viewed the exhibits and then started a steep climb up a road that would take us completely through the park. Normally this mountain road opens on Memorial Day, but this year, because of a late snow, it opened the day before we arrived.

A family of brown marmots

We were so relieved, but also nervous about what road conditions we would encounter. Jane started her normal hyperventilating as we ascended into the sub-alpine environment.

Not so bad next to the guardrail!

Above the tree line and into the alpine tundra, which is Capt. Larry’s favorite mountainous environment, Jane was a nervous wreck as we negotiated the ribbon of highway across the mountain ridges. And we were really high at over 12,000 feet.

View of the valley below

We stopped at several overlooks and points of interest, and found a family of brown marmots and a couple of pikas coming out of winter hibernation at altitude.

At the Alpine Visitor's Center

Jane was even less thrilled with our descent as hard braking in some of the switchbacks started to nauseate her. After we reached the bottom, we found a small park in Empire, CO and had some lunch.

That's a snowbank!

After a short run on the fairly level I-70 interstate, which delighted Jane, we were back on Jane’s favorite roads heading south to Salida, CO, where we would spend the night.

Collecting the stamp

The east-west divide

We passed through the ski resort areas of Breckenridge and Fairplay, which didn’t impress us in the least, and wove our way down to Salida after a couple more hours of tortuous mountain driving. Jane was so relieved when we finally stopped for the night.

The next morning we headed to our second Colorado national park, Great Sand Dunes. Going into this park, we spotted a huge sand dune and immediately thought we would be disappointed.

Park #2

Arriving at the visitor’s center we watched a video describing how the dunes were formed from eroded sediment from the San Juan Mountaines 65 miles to the west, which piled the sand up against the Sangre de Christo Mountains immediately to the east.

Now that's a sandpile!

These latter mountains also contribute to the sand pile via northeasterly storm winds and snowmelt runoff. The interplay of these natural forces lead to the formation of these dunes.

Mendota Creek

We left the visitor’s center and went out to the dunes to take some pictures.

Mendota Creek and the dune

We found the runoff from the Mendota Creek to be in full swing and a fairly rapid stream of water flowing by the base of the dune. People were wading through the creek and climbing the dune, a really taxing feat. We took some pictures and drove to another viewpoint near the main campground to view some of the escape dunes. We left the park and started a long, uninspiring drive to Durango, CO, which would position us for our next Colorado park, Mesa Verde.