I reached the gate of Great Sand Dunes National Park late on Day 17 after driving through a rainstorm (7 p.m. is late in terms of finding a camping spot). The sign at the gate said the campground was full. But I knew the park only had one campground and it was 3 miles inside the park, so I decided to check it out anyways. The park is so small I figured if there was no camping, I'd take my photos and leave.
The campground arrangement was unusual compared to many of the other parks I'd been in - there was a parking area and a ranger at a pay station. Two young guys approached the station and asked for a tent site, to which the ranger exclaimed, "Yes! I have one tent site available."
Great.
I asked anyway. The ranger said, "Oh, you're not with them?" I replied, "No I am, I just don't like them and would like a different tent site." Actually, I replied, "No." The ranger then told me to check out a site to see if it was empty (yeah, right). I did anyways. It was not empty. I came back to the station, prepared to leave when the ranger said I could have an unreserved group site to myself for the price of a normal site! I took it.
I played around on the dunes for about a half hour in the morning of Day 18 and then headed out.
Great Sand Dunes National Park is an interesting park. It's known for it's recreation on the dunes and its mountain backpacking. There are only about 5 miles of paved road in the entire park. My guess would be it attained official NP status based on its number of visitors every year, but I find it undeserved. I believe it should be a national monument or a national recreation area.There is one cool thing. The road into the park is 14 miles long and faces the dunes nearly the entire time. At first, they look really small. But once you are on them, they are gigantic!
Mesa Verde National Park
The next stop was Mesa Verde National Park. They, fortunately had plenty of camping. Unfortunately, it was the most expensive camping I'd had yet and was not impressive.
Going into the park, I had no idea what it was really about; although reading about it gave me a funny feeling - it doesn't operate like a normal park. I found out the reason for this is because the park focuses on the Ancestral Puebloans' cliff dwellings and outright ignores the landscape except when it is applicable to tell the story of the Indians. To really experience the park, you have to buy a tour ticket for the cliff dwellings. They were only $3, but it's unique among the parks I've visited.The cliff dwelling was awesome! We climbed, in a thunderstorm, down a path on the face of the cliff. Then we had to climb up a ladder to get into the dwelling. To leave you have to crawl through a tunnel and then up another ladder. It was fun watching people freak out. Here's another angle of the entry ladder; I took this from inside the dwelling (you can see a girl with a black sweatshirt near the top of the ladder). It was a really cool tour. You can browse through some of the photos via the link at the end of the post.
I've tried to make the focus of my trip landscapes. To use wilderness would not be necessarily appropriate. So this stop felt a little weird; more educational. It was a nice change of pace.
BUT, Mesa Verde should not be a national park. During my many long hours in the car, I've contemplated what I think the definition of a national park should be. And while I have not completed my set of standards, I have thought of one: a national park should focus upon something natural. Several of our parks have ruins, petroglyphs, ghost mining towns, etc. But all these other parks focus on the landscape first. This landscape is no doubt fascinating, but it was completely ignored.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Have you ever heard of this park? Well, apparently neither has the rest of the world. But that made it fun for me!
The better part of Day 19 was spent in this park. When I arrived, I was informed camping was available on the rim and in the canyon. This park, like Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon keeps its roads on the rim of the canyon. So I thought I'd try to get to the bottom to camp. The five-mile dirt road to the bottom has a 16% grade! If that means nothing to you, consider it three times steeper than typical grades. Unfortunately, the campsites at the bottom were boring. Although the river was cool.
I spent most of the afternoon hiking and riding the rim road, checking out overlooks. I was forced back to camp by a thunderstorm (five days in a row). I got to my tent and continued with The Drawing of the Three. I had read the warnings (preposterous!) before camping and saw notices for a bear that likes to hang around camp. Just as the rain stopped and I was about to get out of my tent I heard something. And I kept hearing it. And I was worried. And then I realized it was people setting up a tent. And later the camp host told me they were old signs and he needed to replace them. Yep, a month's worth of work in my estimation.I liked Black Canyon mostly because it was deserted. Developed and deserted; my summer experience of choice.
And I liked Colorado. It's fascinating how many different landscapes there are within the state. Although it shouldn't come to much of a surprise, given it is more than 100,000 square miles of property.
Colorado Photo Album
Next Post: Utah, Part 1
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