Day 1-Garden of the Gods and Zapata Falls Camping

Day 1-Part 1- Start of the Journey

Unfortunately got a late start as I needed to get an oil change, and decided to swing by a Valvoline Instant Oil which is where the fun began…

The car next to me was getting their transmission fluid line replaced when suddenly the line blew up coating a 15ft space with transmission fluid. The fluid completely covered both our cars. After the Valvoline crew wiped down and cleaned our cars they sent us on our merry way.

Day 1-Part 2- Garden of the Gods

Once on the road it was quick drive to Colorado Springs and after a couple detours… Hey I wasn’t lost they are redoing the main road into the park.

Naturally the first stop was the visitor center to learn about the park and how it was formed and about the first peoples who lived in the area to how the park went from privately owned to park it is now.

I whole heartedly recommend visiting the park in January- March as there was virtually no one in the park.

The Siamese Twins is a must see beside the Balancing Rock. Also a lot less photographed and less traveled. I only saw 5 to 7 other people on the hike up to being at the twins whereas Balanced Rock had a constant of 20 to 30 people.

Day 1-Part 3- Winter Camping at Zapata Falls

I left Garden of the Gods with the intention of camping at The Great Sand Dunes National Park. While en-route I was treated to beautiful sunset at La Veta pass that saw the sky change from light sky blue to a deep violet that seemed to chase the cream yellow clouds while in the mirrors the creeping darkness gave way to bands of shades of violet mixing with bright layer of pink that gave way to band of cream color.

Feeling giddy about such a sight I forged on to Fort Garland to fill up with gas and snacks knowing it was going to be a cold night. After the fill up I deemed it wise to select a campground and realized that The Great Dunes park does not allow overnight camping in the winter… That’s when I realized doing initial research could be beneficial.(We’ll see if I learned my Lesson Later) ehem… Spoiler I didn’t, see day 2 and day 3.-I’m a slow learner.

Anyways back to the story- I figured there would be a campground so I kept forging forward when I realized I had to stop as if I went too far I would likely lose cell service. After looking at The Great Sand Dunes website and saw that most of the options they listed where closed I jumped on the Ioverlander app (Amazing app-definitely recommend-Saved me for night 3). I found Zapata Falls campground on the app. I finally made it to the campground around 7pm which by then it was pitch black minus the moon and the lights of Alamosa in the valley below. Not realizing the campground was at 9,000ft and after a quick dinner and snapping some photos settled in for a cold night.

Day 2 - Great Sand Dunes - Alien Watchtower - Colorado Gators - Cano's Castle

Day 1-Part 1- Winter Camping at Zapata Falls

Day two began with realizing my phone had died due to the extreme cold and noticing a thin layer of ice frozen on the interior side of the camper hell-ehem camper shell due to the subfreezing weather over three nights- I came to realize it was due to the moister in breath freezing overnight. The main goal for the day was to get into The Great Sand Dunes, to hike the great dune. After marveling at the sunrise and sitting in the cab with the heaters on full blast to get some feeling back, I proceeded to make a cup of “hot” tea… extremely cold but not for the lack of trying.

Day 1-Part 2- The Great Sand Dunes

I set off to scope out the rest of the campground and am pleased to admit that it would be a wonderful spot from late spring through early fall or an emergency winter campground. My lack of sleep was erased by the sight of The Great Dunes from the main trailhead to Zapata Falls. From the vantage point overlooking The Dunes, I fired up the trusty Go Pro to film my “strenuous dissent” and to make sure my grand entrance (asking the park ranger if it was busy, to which she responded with a resounding bored no) to The Great Sand Dunes was recorded. Once inside the park I made a beeline to the Ranger Station to get my paper maps, obligatory stickers, and tokens for my National Park token album. I also used it as a chance to fill up my empty water bottles and get some non-frozen water.

I proceeded to the parking lot at the base of the dunes. This is where I would use All Trails for the first time since downloading the app and wow it’s wonderful to have but can kill a phone battery if you don’t use airplane mode. Here is where my journey started by crossing the dry creek bed and with dawning horror realizing just how big the dunes are. I started out by trying to go straight up the front of the first large one which was a terrible mistake as for every two feet I went up I slid down one foot. After a about 45 minutes of fighting my up and a couple minor heart attacks I finally made to the first ridge (top and middle to the left) Here I stopped to set up my tripod and get some initial photos and take a chance to regain some breath before doing a final push up an extremely steep portion of sand to the final ridgeline and summit.

Once on top I took a half an hour to do a photo shoot and devour some granola bars as I couldn’t open my bag trail mix… the plastic zippers are quite challenging. For the decent I passed the only other two people hiking The Great Dune and went straight down the two steepest parts thinking it would be quicker. It was but by the time made it back to my truck I was standing about an inch taller due to all the sand in my boots.

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Southern Rockies road trip