Our first adventure today was a trip to Zapata Falls. Actually, we didn't quite make it to the falls. The trail to the falls is an easy quarter mile hike, but when you get to the end of the trail, you can hear the falls and see the rushing stream, but the falls themselves are around a corner in an alcove.
In the summer it's relatively easy to wade or use the rocks to get into the alcove, but today, the stream was covered with ice and snow. The ice has been undercut by the spring meltwater, so it's very thin in places, and we saw one young man fall through and saw other spots where people had obviously fallen through the ice. Brrrr! We had our hiking sticks and hiking shoes on, so we carefully picked our way across the stream and along the far bank until we could catch a glimpse of the falls. They were mostly frozen still and quite lovely.
At this point I could see the falls themselves, but I didn't have a camera with me, and I needed both hiking sticks to keep my feet under me. Ken wisely stayed back a bit and snapped these photos.
After another 20 minute drive over washboard, we drove on north to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. At the visitor center, we watched a short video and looked at the exhibits which described the action of opposing winds and the curve of the Sangre de Cristo mountains that have created and maintained the impressive dunes.
They rise as much as 750 feet tall, and although they continually shift and reform, they have been here for thousands of years. Photos can give some idea of the dunes, but like other spectacular natural formations, only being there in person to be awed by them can really communicate their scope and shifting nature.
After a picnic lunch, we hoped to climb High Dune, but the weather didn't cooperate. There were thunderstorms in the area, and the dunes are a particularly dangerous place to be with lightning around. Besides, the wind was chilly and gusty, so the prospect of hiking the dunes wasn't very appealing. Maybe another time.
We stopped on our way back out to the main highway to view some boondocking sites on BLM land adjacent to SR-150. They are off the highway on a BLM road and would be a great place to enjoy dark skies and the vista of the wide San Luis Valley to the west and the Sangre de Cristo mountains to the east.
We drove back to Alamosa, to Cole Park to walk along the Rio Grande. That area is much more sheltered than the dunes, and the rain storms had moved on.
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