High mountains and a big sand box

Before departing Salida at 7:30 am at chilly 25 deg. F., but with sunshine and a clear mountain view, we ran up and down Main Street Salida (see pic) – many galleries, unique stores, bars and restaurants - to get at least an idea what this quaint little western town has to offer. Wished, again, we would have had more time here.


But … on to Mount Princeton Hot Springs, where we got breakfast first and then a tour of the resort. Hot spring water in different pools, but also „dips“ in the Little Arkansas River - which runs on the grounds of the resort. Never seen that before: steaming hot pools of water (no smelly sulphur!) formed in the ice-cold river water - so strange! Beautiful setting, but didn’t have enough time to soak ourselves but instead drove up to a ghost town in the mountains (snow piling up high there) by name St. Elmo (see pic), with a popular snowmobile region around.

It took us about 1,5 hours – a beautiful drive – to the Great Sand Dunes National Park (see pics below). Long before we arrived there, the sand dunes were to be seen in the distance, but when we reached the Visitors Center (where we met with local CVB reps and had pulled pork sandwiches for lunch first) it looked even more impressive. Mountains up to 14.000 ft. (4500 m), snow-covered, inbetween: a vast valley (St. Luis Valley), formed by a crater, long time ago, and filled with water which evaporated and left sand, piling up high because of the wind and kept in place by the mountain range Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

The valley is surrounded by two creeks and they produce wetlands – another interesting ecosystem in this region which attracts many birds. The dunes here reach heights up to 750 ft. (250 m) and are spectacular formations which can be climed or slided down on boards or sort of sand-sledges. Since it was Valentine’s & Presidents Day Weekend, the park was pretty crowded and we were wondering how long it will still be allowed here to walk around freely (there are no marked paths). We hiked up one of the smaller dunes to get an overview, up is pretty exhausting whereas down-hills is easy. What an unusual and beautiful landscape!

At 3 pm we departed by bus and after about 20 min. reached our final destination for the day: The Zapata Ranch, an outdoors adventure ranch operated by the Nature Conservancy. There is a main lodge and cabins spread out on huge grounds - 23 beds in total -, sand dunes and mountains in the background, grassland and wetlands nearby, where sand cranes rest in huge numbers in April. Perfect location for birdwatchers, but also for hikers and riders. Didn’t see the herd of bison yet, but got to eat excellent meal with bison steak for dinner.