Great Sand Dunes Natioinal Park

Monday started as early as we could reasonably get around.  We got up at 6am and were on the road by about 7:20.  We wanted to get to the Great Sand Dunes National Park before the sun made it impossible to spend any time on the dunes with the dogs. The roads were two lane and very curvy, so we were limited in our speed.  Once again, there was almost no traffic in either direction.  A very nice scenic drive through canyons, plains, and eroded hills covered in grass and topped with trees.

We arrived about 10am, and the heat wasn't too bad yet, maybe 80 degrees.  We had purchased boots for
the dogs to try to protect them from the heat.  The boots have a rubber sole and "socks" that went up their ankles.  In addition, there are velcro straps that tighten the boots around the heal of their feet.  We brought out the water spraybottle and bottle of water with bowl, then headed out towards the dunes. 

The first thing encountered was the stream that brings sand from the mountains and high side of the dunes (mountain side) out onto the plains.  From there, the wind blows the sand back towards the mountains, creating the dunes.  No new sand is entering the system, so the dunes are not growing, but constantly shift.  The tallest dune is over 900' tall.It became obvious that we were at high elevation (over 8000') so we were not going to be climbing the big dunes.  We also found that the boots soles were too thin to protect the dogs feet from the heat.  We went to the first ridge with no problems, but the dogs were doing a very funny thing.  They walked behind us in our shadows!

On the way back in, we were watching the dogs boots to see if they came off, and Annie lost one.  We couldn't find it, even after searching for 10 minutes.  It had disappeared under the sand as her foot went under and came up without the boot.  Then Zoe lost one.  I pulled off the remaining three boots from Annie and began carrying her to keep her feet cool.  Since we were at elevation, that didn't last long, and I "ran" her back to the stream to get her feet into the water.  Terri hurried as fast as she could.  When we got there, it was easy to convince Annie to lay down in the shallow stream to cool off.  Zoe took more convincing.  We then took the dogs to the outdoor showers to rinse the sand out of their fur and feet for the ride.

We passed over the Continental Divide at North Cochetopa Pass at 10,135' elevation, and made our way to the Cedar Rail RV park in Raton, NM.