We finally left Salida and are hanging out by Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. With thunderstorms forecast for early in the day, we decided to do a quickish hike in the area. Mosca Pass Trail starts just inside the park headquarters and except for 2 other people, we had the entire hike to ourselves. The trail is an out and back of 6.4 miles with 1520′ of climbing.
I found this hike fascinating because the National Park and Preserve is 239 square miles of diversity. The dunefield alone is 30 square miles and has the highest dune in North America at 750′ tall. We were amazed that just across the road on our hike was a lush forest. The hike heads up a little valley with a couple views of the dunes down below but as the trails winds up, the dunes are blocked. After crossing a few grassy meadows we arrived at the top. It was pretty anticlimactic..no huge expansive views at the top.
The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the hike back down to the dunes. Wildflowers and trees, rocky mountainsides and cactus. Everything smelled so good!
Leave a Reply