I feel like this blog post should read: Once upon a time, in a far away land, a family was traveling in their camper when they stumbled upon a great sand dune hidden in a valley between tall, tall mountains.
And in this brutally hot, relentlessly sunny sandscape the family discovered an oasis: a magical, cool, shallow, surging river to splash and play away the days in. The End.
Our next stop after Colorado Springs was Blanca, Colorado to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park and the magical oasis in the desert known as the seasonal Medano River. This time of year, snow melts off of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains (the southern most sub range of the Rocky Mountains) causing water to flow down and form the Medano Lake and River system.
When the water reaches the base of the sand dune it spreads out to form a wide, shallow stream.
When you are watching the water you see waves surging down the river. Underwater sand ridges form and build up under the water until the pressure from the water topples the underwater sandbars. When this happens the built up water surges down the stream and forms a wave that resembles small waves hitting the beach at the ocean. The formation/destruction of sand ridges happens in rapid succession, sending a surging wave down the stream every twenty seconds or so.
The river is termed seasonal because it only forms in the springtime and the size and amount of water flowing all depends on how much snow fall happened the previous winter and how rainy the spring is. When the water is high tiny humans can ride the surge in tubes or on boogie boards down the river.
As you can imagine this time of year the park is very busy with visitors wanting to enjoy the sunshine and the water. This was our first real taste of what the summer is going to look like on the National Park scene. People, lots of people…we have gotten pretty spoiled enjoying so many places with so few other humans.
Even though we got there as the park was opening, it was busy! We stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up our Junior Ranger booklets. By the time we finished the parks was really filling up and parking was dicey. We had to walk a fair way down to get to the stream at the base of the sand dunes. Going down wasn’t so bad, with a slight downhill grade and a less intense morning sun. The way back up on the other hand, was brutal. The sand got so, so, so hot and the sun was so, so, so intense, plus, walking in sand uphill is quite the challenge.
But we made it! And the kiddos we very excited to play in the sand and the river.
All those little black dots on the sand dunes in the background of the above photo are brave adventurers. Some people (not us, we were there for the water and the view) enjoy climbing up to “sled“ down the side of the dunes while others climb to the top to get a better vantage point and see the vast size of the park and the incredible amount of sand that has been deposited at the base of the mountains.
The dunes cover an area of about 30 square miles and are home to the tallest sand dunes in North America. It is estimated that about 5 billion cubic meters of sand have been deposited here over time. The dunes formed over tens of thousands of years after the lakes within the valley receded and the exposed sediments were blown toward the Sangre De Cristo Mountains where they bounced off the mountains landing at the base of the mountain and forming giant piles of sand - at least that is the Katie geologic interpretation…it might have been a little more drawn out and complicated than that.
This area has become its own unique ecosystem unlike any other on the planet.
The kids had a blast playing in the water splashing, chasing, and tackling each other.
AJ sat and made a giant mound of sand.
I walked in the river and enjoyed watching the movement in the water and the sand.
Every surge of water changed how the water was flowing and changed the patterns in the water.
The wind was moving the sand on the dunes and causing little, mini avalanches in the sand banks along the river.
Eventually the beating sun and lack of shade got the better of us and we retreated back to the camper for some shade and A.C.
We came back a second day, but the temperature had dropped and the wind was whipping. We managed a short walk along the river until we got sick being pelted by tiny sand projectiles. It was shocking to feel the sting and burn on any exposed skin any time the wind picked up.
Look at that handsome man with the windswept locks.
A portrait of two kids who wished they had listened to their mother and worn their bathing suits under their warm clothes
We overheard the following exchange between B1 and B2 in the back of the truck.
B1: “This place is awesome. I don’t want to leave.”
B2: “Well when you are bigger you can buy a camper and come back here with your kids and your honey.”
I am not sure what gives me more of the feels - that they want to repeat this trip with their families some day or the fact that B2 is going to refer to her significant other as her “honey.”
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