Columbus Day Weekend - Great Sand Dunes Rehash

Time for another long weekend as Monday the 8th is the Columbus Day so of course that means it was time for yet another road trip. My goal was Mesa Verde which is the only one of the four National Parks in Colorado I had yet to been to (the others are Rocky Mountain NP, Black Canyon and Great Sand Dunes). It's in the very far south-western corner of the state close to the four corners so it's a minimum two day trip and if you actually want to spend enough time there, make it three. No wait, I got Tuesday off as well so make that four.



View Larger Map A and I: Louisville
B: Great Sand Dunes
C: Cortez (night 1)
D: Mesa Verde
E: Durango (night 2)
F: Ouray
G: Telluride
H: Glenwood Springs (night 3)

This also was one of the last chances to get out before winter starts creeping in. Many of the attractions have already closed their doors around Labor Day back in early September, e.g. the road to Mt. Evans. The Trail Ridge Road has also been closed a few times because of snow storms. On Friday morning it even snowed in the foothills and on Saturday morning when I set out, the temperature had dipped below freezing as well.

A tiny bit of snow on the trees and slightly wet road but nothing too bad

My plan for Saturday was basically just to drive to Cortez right next to the park entrance. That's about an 8 hour drive without stops or any deviations from the quickest route. I set off before sunset and about half way through came to the realization that there's no point in just driving straight to Cortez since there's not a whole lot of interesting stuff there, especially after it starts getting dark. I therefore decided to revisit the Great Sand Dunes National Park where I had been to back in April with some of my colleagues.

A view down to Buena Vista for the 4th(?) time

One big difference this time was that the Medano Creek that we had to jump across back in April was no longer there and it was just sand and more sand from the parking lot out. Trying to climb up the dunes was just as difficult as before and this time there was also brutal cold winds that kept blowing the sand up in the air and froze your hands. Having learned my lesson, this time I did wear a hat and some sunscreen so I didn't end up looking like a lobster afterwards. I also went back to Zapata Falls and surprise surprise, they weren't frozen anymore.

Wither Medano Creek?

Pouring the sand from your shoes afterwards is the best part

Up up you go

Zapata Falls after hopping a few minutes from stone to stone trying to avoid the freezing water

Clouds climbing over the mountains. The sand dunes start from the mid left of the pic

It turned out that I spent too much time on this short detour as it already got dark around 7pm and driving the last 90 minutes or so in pitch black wasn't that much fun.

The Fall is Here

At the end of August I extended my car lease and decided to switch to a new car. I got this large Chevy Impala with New Mexico plates. Or just one plate to be exact as it only had the one in the back. I had to Google to see whether driving a car like that is even legal. Apparently cars registered in 19 or the 50 states require just the back plate and New Mexico is one of them.

The road to Bear Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park is closed for most of the time because of road work. However, if you get there before 9am you can drive there yourself instead of having to catch a shuttle bus. One Saturday morning I woke up really early and went out before the sunset and finally got to see this beautiful place. It had snowed a few weeks prior up in the mountains.

I wasn't digging the Chevy Impala at all so I switched it to another Chevy Cruze 2012 and this time I got the best model with keyless ignition, leather seats and all that other useless stuff. It's funny though how two cars from the same company can be so different. The Cruze is so much fun to drive whereas the Impala just made you want to avoid driving altogether.

Random Wildlife

I feel like I've seen this guy before. I shall call him Bob from now on.

This bird is called the... umm... greyish bird?

The elk gather around in the meadows and the bulls do the weird bugling sound

Don't get too close

Say hello to our pika friend

Some moose looking for a way round the fence

Awww... so cute. A turkey vulture. Love the perforated nostrils

Some bighorn sheep ewes getting a drink

It felt like a real operation at the Rocky Mountain National Park when the bighorn sheep crossed the road to get to the meadow. There must have been a dozen park rangers stopping all traffic and making sure they got across safely and without too much stress.

As seen from this chart by the park rangers, getting to see these creatures is not exactly a guarantee.

 

Yellowstone

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The first Monday of September is the Labor Day, a national holiday, so I felt I had to do something special during the long weekend. Visiting the Yellowstone National Park had been on my to-do list from the get-go so with an incredible short planning, I decided to take the plunge and just get it over with. I left early on Saturday morning and came back on Monday having driven approximately 1250 miles (2000km) over the course of these three days, most of which were on Saturday and Monday.

I spent the first night in Jackson Hole, WY where I went to a two hour rodeo in the evening. I booked a more expensive seat in the covered main stand and that proved to be a good decision since 15 minutes after the start it started pouring like crazy and the organizers eventually let even the cheapskate people under the main stands since it was so bad.

Some ski-hills in Jackson, WY

As a non-US citizen, can you say cheezy? I dare not even say anything about the speech that went along with this.

After a not-so-good night, I head out at 7am when it was 40 ° F (4.5 ° C) and incredibly foggy. I pretty much missed all of the Grand Teton National Park which lies south of Yellowstone. That in itself would've included enough interesting stuff to spend a couple of days there but since I had extremely limited time, I decided to just drive through it. The fog was so thick in some places that you couldn't see ANYTHING. Luckily it cleared out shortly after I reached Yellowstone.

Some random falls which seemed cool at the time but just a waste of time by the end of the day when I saw what the rest of the park had to offer.

 

Yellowstone has roughly half of the world's geysers. In layman's terms that means not dozens but a couple of hundred of these things spread around in quite a small area. At first you feel like taking a dozen pics of the ones you see but later on, you just end up walking past most of them... "blah, that's nothing special". Only in Yellowstone.

Everyone seems to talk about the Old Faithful but these things were way cooler, or would that be hotter? It's a non-stop, kind of a hypnotic show that you just want to keep staring at forever. Then again, if you get in front of the spray, it smells like boiled eggs because of the sulfur.

Dayum

The Old Faithful as seen from a distance. I missed this show by a few minutes and had to then wait for about 90 minutes in order to catch the next eruption.

A random waterfall to which I had to hike 2.5 miles there and back again in a not-so-great terrain without any water (or a hat). What a dumb-dumb I can be sometimes. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had skipped this since it took what seemed to be forever and eventually I ended up having to drive through quite a few interesting places since the clock was ticking fast and the sun was going down. Oh well...

The sizzling Grand Prismatic Spring

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone as seen from the top of the 308 feet (94 m) Lower Yellowstone Falls

Oh hello there mr wolfy coyote

The obligatory buffalo pic. There's no fence between them and I but they were just concentrated on the omnomnom so no panic.

This is what a forest looks like after a wildfire. This was basically all I saw for the next 30 minutes driving east towards Cody, WY before it got dark and the last hour or so was driving in pitch black. This wasn't exactly the most fun time I have had here since I was absolutely exhausted after one of the best days I've ever had in my life.

Rocky Mountain Airshow

The last weekend of August there was a three day annual air show at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, just next to Louisville. The show was the same on all three days so on Sunday I parked just outside the airport and got to see most of it for free. Most planes flew straight over me as they were landing or going over the main crowd.

F-22 Raptor with the afterburners on. Cover your ears.

F-22 chasing down a bogey

Royal Gorge Bridge

The Royal Gorge Bridge used to be the highest bridge in the world until the early 1990s. The bridge deck hangs 955 feet (291 m) above the Arkansas River (not at all copied from Wikipedia).

The bridge seen from the aerial tramway

Those brave enough (and with too much cash laying around) can take this skycoaster which propels them way over the edge

... or you can take this zipline instead

A white buffalo

A bighorn sheep ram with his blue tongue out

The Arkansas River and the Royal Gorge Railroad as seen from the bridge

You mean that I brought my 1000'/300m long fishing pole all the way here for nothing? Oh bugger.

The aerial tram as seen from the bridge deck

If you want to get down you can take the incline railway