Great Sand Dunds National Park; Alamosa, CO; and Taos, NM

Sangre De Cristo Mountains from camp site

After spending almost a week in the south-central portion of Colorado and northern New Mexico, one word to sum up this area is EXTREME.  Everything is pretty remote, big, and spread out. It is arid climate with little annual precipitation, warm temperatures during the day and it can get very cold at night.  (One night it got down to 27 degrees.) We stayed a few miles outside the town of Alamosa (elevation 7500 ft), located about 75 miles west of I-25 and 40 miles north of the CO/NM boarder.  It made for great night sky/star gazing.  The Milky Way and various constellations could be easily seen since there was very little light pollution. Alamosa is a nice size town with a variety of shopping, restaurants, hotels, etc; situated in the San Luis Valley surrounded by two mountain ranges - Sangre De Cristo Mountains and San Juan Mountains.  The Rio Grande River runs through Alamosa flowing south toward and through NM.

Sacred Heart Church, Alamosa, CO

We visited a couple of churches in the area.  Sacred Heart in Alamosa is a beautiful mission style building with several murals painted on the walls inside and is listed in the National Register as a historical church.  We attended Mass there on Sunday.  It turned out to be bilingual, music and some prayers were in Spanish and the rest in English.  It was very nice and the people were friendly and welcoming.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Conejas, CO

We stopped at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Conejas, Colorado.  It is also listed in the National Register as the oldest church in Colorado and first Catholic parish in the State.

Sand Dunes National Park, Mosca, CO

Dune climb

Sand Dune National Park - Dune climb

The Great Sand Dunes National Park is located about 35 miles northeast of Alamosa.








 The sand dune field is an unbelievable 36 square miles of course sand, positioned at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and boasts the tallest dunes (750 ft) in North America.  The Medano creek flows in front of the dunes with varying amount of water depending on the time of year. It's quite a contrast to see these tall sand dunes with the rugged mountains behind and to the north.









We attempted to climb to the top where we are told it is quite a view, but it proved to be too much for us that day.  It's not a straight up hill to the top; it's peaks and valleys and it was quite windy (sounds like I am making excuses!).  The views from different areas of the dunes as well as the drive through the park is definitely worth the trip.

 About 10 miles south of the National Park is Zapata Recreation Area and Zapata Falls.

Trail to Zapata Creek/Falls

Zapata Falls

Zapata Creek

Zapata Falls

After hearing about the drive and hike to the Zapata Falls we decided to give it a try. Turning off the main road to the Park, there was a steep three mile drive on a rough rocky road.  From there it's  a 1/2 mile hike, again a little steep and rocky, to Zapata Creek.

You have to wade through the creek the rest of the way up to a narrow crevasse in the rock where the 30' waterfall can be seen.  Since we were warned, we took our water shoes to wade through the very cold water and had our shoes and socks to change into when we were done.  Beautiful area; the drive and hike was a fun challenge.





We went on several scenic drives in the mountains and again the Aspens were beginning to turn.  One of the drives we took south into New Mexico, including the town of Taos, NM. This is a ski area with the town in the valley.  Plenty of restaurants, hotels & shopping spread out along the main road. For me, it wasn't the most picturesque town, but am glad we had a chance to check it out.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

The most interesting part of the drive to Taos was coming across the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge which spans 650' above the Rio Grande River; it is the 7th highest bridge in the United States.

Rio Grande River

One more stop in Colorado coming up - Colorado Springs area.