Great Sand Dunes National Park and Taos, NM

On Saturday, we hit the road east for a long drive back across part of the Rockies on Highway 160. It was pretty and green, and the snow-capped mountains looked tall in the distance.

Colorado driving

Eventually we crossed the Rockies (where they were plowing the snow off the top of the passes already) and drove into the San Luis Valley in eastern Colorado. Here, we planned to visit and camp one night at the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

We arrived to find that it was National Public Lands Day - which means free admission to national parks. (Ironically, 3 days later, every national park in the country would shut down...)

In this valley in Colorado, wind patterns have been depositing sediment for 500,000 years in order to blow up and over the Rockies. This has left an enormous dune field, right next to the Rockies and bordered by otherwise by two streams. It is very strange at first, but it's very cool.

Looking to the valley past the beginning of the dunes

We hiked to the top of "High Dune," one of the first major peaks in the dune field. The dunes are open to everyone, and there are no marked trails; you simply make your own way to the top.

Looking up to the top - over a 1 mile hike

Looking down from the top

After leaving the sand dunes on Sunday, we drove south through New Mexico and stopped by the oldest still-inhabited village in the United States: the Taos Pueblo. Here we took a tour of the old village, learning both about the adobe architecture of the 1300 year-old buildings there and some about the pueblo Indian culture of the tribe. The architecture and buildings were neat; small markets and shops were in the first floors selling things like Indian-made shoes, jewelry, and adobe oven-baked bread. The culture was closed and guarded - I have no pictures here because cameras weren't allowed in due to the tribe's ongoing preparations for a harvest festival. Their religious ceremonies and practices are secret and kept within themselves, strangely opposite of the outward-spreading goals of larger religions.

Late on Sunday afternoon we left Taos, NM and headed east. After crossing the last part of the Rockies, we were back on the plains again and camped on the east side of the state: next stop, Texas!