A few photography buddies and I got together down in Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve a couple of weeks ago. We went down for some good winter photography, but the weather didn't really cooperate. We managed to salvage a few shots, but I'll definitely be heading back down and hoping for better light.
The Dunes are located in the San Luis Valley, about a 4 hour drive southwest of Denver. Wind blowing across the valley has created a remakable dune field, shaping dunes that reach several hundred feet high and that have stopped at the western base of the Sangre de Cristos.
The drive in is spectacular. I came in from the east on Hwy 160, dropping in over La Veta Pass and into the valley, then turning north at Hwy 150 which leads into the Monument and Preserve.
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After stopping to get a few pictures along the entrance road, I stopped in at the ranger station to pay my fee and let them know we'd be staying the night. The temps were going to be in the -2 to -5 range for the night, and I got some screwy looks from the two park rangers. Hakuna Matatta, I say. No worries!
A view from the visitor center:
I was the first to arrive, and the others weren't due until later at night, so I decided to do some exploring before setting up camp. It was around 4:30, so I headed back out in the truck to find a good place to get shoot sunset from. There were a lot of overcast clouds off to the west hiding the setting sun, so, unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of very good light on the Sangre de Cristos or the dunes, but even poor photography couldn't ruin what was a darn nice evening alone on the Preserve.
After packing up my gear, I headed back to set up camp. Camping on dunes is allowed, as long as you drop down into the troughs. We decided to use the designated camp sites - we had the whole place to ourselves, and a few of the sites have spectacular views of the dune field and mountains, identical to the view in the shot above.
It was already getting VERY cold, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to build a fire first or get the tent set up. I opted for the tent, which was probably a mistake. By the time I got to lighting a fire, it was so cold that my lighter was really struggling to work. In fact, it was almost impossible to light the stove, the lantern or any gas-powered device. Eventually, it was totally impossible, and anything that wasn't lit wasn't going to get lit - couldn't get gas out of the canisters. But we did get a fire going, and it kept us sort-of-warm for the evening.
The REI Clipper ain't a 4-season tent, but I'm not sure it would have made much difference. It got down to -3 according to the visitor center weather record and heat loss through the tent walls wouldn't have been much less I suspect. I have a Big Agnes Emcampment (20-degree, I think) and I was okay for the most part. I had on my underoos, a couple layers of polar fleece, a coat, heaband, hat and gloves. I woke up a few times when my nose siezed up
but I like the cold, so I didn't mind
too much. It was my first outting with the Big Agnes, and I LOVE It. I toss and turn a lot, and like to sleep on my side - that bag is fantastic; most comfortable night of sleep, despite the cold, that I've had in a long time.
Got up early the next morning to head out for sunrise photography. Again, a lot of clouds made things difficult, but it was still beautiful.
After sunrise and a little breakfast, we headed out to explore the dunes. By this time it was snowing and pretty overcast. We hiked on out anyway and played around with some abstract photography, and got a good appreciation of how big they actually are.
After a couple of hours of dunes photography, we headed back. The forecast for the night was -13 (yep, that's a "minus" 13
), with 7 to 17" of snow, which had already started falling. Even loving cold weather as much as I do, that didn't sound too good, so we opted to pack up, head home and try again another time. The drive back over La Veta was amazingly gorgeous with the willows, aspen, dogwood, mountains and snow. But the roads were as bad as the view was beautiful, and even my 4-WD Tacoma was struggling in spots, so I decided to keep moving instead of stopping for some pics.
All in all, a great weekend, nice cold weather, no crowds, amazing views and a few decent pics. It was all good!
Rick
When I got there at about 9PM Friday night it was about 12 degrees. I slept in the back of my 4Runner, and was actually pretty comfy in my Sierra Designs zero degree bag. It was hard to get out of it the next AM though.
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