Colorado

Great Sand Dunes National Park

In Colorado, we visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park where Martin climbed to the to of a 650 ft dune.  After some chilly camping nights we made our way to Mesa Verde to see some of the native cliff dwellings which were quite incredible.

To see our photos of Colorado, click here.

Nov 8th Great Sand Dunes National Park.
A surprising and unusual stopover about 3 hours south of Colorado Springs at this relatively new National Park! On the high flat desert plains blown in from the San Juan Mountains and up against the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains are 30 square miles of pure, brown sand. Dunes rising over 750 feet. Amazing, and challenge to climb! After spending a very cold night at the campsite (2 degree C), it was blowing pretty cold, so I left the tallest dune climb to Martin. Who described it as awesome and rewarding with an incredible 360 view for a looong way.

Cliff Palace - Mesa Verde National Park

Nov 11 MesaVerde National Park.
We took some interesting, scenic (single track) backroads from Sante Fe, through the mesas of Los Alamos (where the first atomic bomb was built) up to the SW corner of Colorado to Mesa Verde National Park. In AD 450 native Indians, called ancestral Pueblo Indians, built on the tops of mesas then later cities adobe-style into the side of the steep walls of the canyons. Pretty amazing to see the the Puebloan villages dotted around the mesas and the cliff dwellings in the canyons. It seemed crazy to build and live in homes clinging to the side of steep cliffs. Getting in and out, accessing food, water etc. must have been challenging.  Mysteriously the people disappeared in 1300 and the buildings were only discovered in 1850.AD. * Mush