Hiking the dunes of the Great Sand Dunes National Park

 Well, I got my exercise today, I elected to try and climb the dunes more to the north side of the Great Sand Dunes, away from the maddening crowds along the southern edge of the dunes.

It was mid-morning by the time things had warmed up enough but not too much to allow me to do the hiking in relative temperature comfort.  The light however, was very flat.  Sorry.

I tried to reach one peak first, found my way barred by very steep sloping sand and instead wandered further north, traversing dunes till I got to other end where I almost made it to the top of that dune, but not quite.  I had this dread of falling and sliding after having made my way up to the top of the dune you see....

The above marks the highest point I achieved today, I must have spent a good three hours probably more wandering about trying to find the least sloping path!  The parking area where I left Yagi was about 500 feet lower, where it says Mendano Creek on the screenshot above.

Here's a couple of Google Earth captures to give you a better idea:

I couldn't see the parking area from the highest point I got to, otherwise I would have tried for a shot just to give you an idea.  Probably all the huffing and puffing I was doing was interfering with thinking about composing pictures.

Hopefully you get an idea of the steepness involved with some of the dunes.

This is looking up after having negotiated the way down....

Once I made it back to Yagi safely, I rested for a bit, had a snack and then geared up again to ride out of the Medano Creek Trail.  I stopped by the Visitor Center (don't bother, it's not worth it) but did take the below pic of the more crowded area for dune climbing.

Later on, back at camp, after some much needed rest.  I walked along the wide banks of the San Luis Lakes:

The same mountain range, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, later on as the sun was setting low on the horizon....see the dunes there?  

Tonight's sunset was OK, at least there were some clouds.  Not that I'm complaining, lack of clouds mean lots of sunshine!  Today was pretty nice with highs in the high 60s but the winds cooled things down somewhat at times.  It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, hopefully.