In the Shadows of the Rockies

As planned, I've spent the last couple of days in Colorado. I was actually planning to stay even longer, but clouds, thunder and rain have been chasing me all over Colorado. Aside from trying to outrun the storm, the drive from Grand Junction to the Great Sand Dunes was pretty uneventful. I made a brief detour through Colorado National Park which (as expected) was like southern Utah, only not as great. And the rain didn't help.

I also happened to be passing through Gunnison, Colorado. My dad noted that (due to it's unique location in the Rockies) the town one of the coldest places in America. That alone makes it a destination for me. I pulled into the visitor center and told them that I was passing through and looking for anything interesting. To my disappointment the best she could do was suggest I drive 45 minutes to a "pretty lake." She also told me (much to my shock) that it was another 6 hours to the Great Sand Dunes. Of course it turned out to only be another 2.5 hours... Thanks Gunnison visitor center!

Quickly putting Gunnison in my rear view mirror, I made a beeline for the Great Sand Dunes. I pulled in a little after 5:00pm and was greeted by some cold rain showers. I quickly set up my tent, jumped inside and didn't leave the tent again until 9:00am the next morning. Fortunately, the weather had taken a pleasant turn overnight. And the rain the night before was actually good for my next event: snowboarding the Great Sand Dunes.

The Great Sand Dunes are the largest in country, at a height of over 700 feet. For me, 700 feet sounded like a small price to pay for sandboarding. I quickly learned otherwise. Hiking up sand dunes is hard (of course), but it's really, really hard when you're wearing your snowboard boots and dragging your snowboard along with you. And ("duh" #2), you don't get 700 straight feet of vertical. It's 50 feet up, 20 down, 60 feet up, 40 feet down, etc. So you spend 15 minutes dragging your board up and you're rewarded with 5 seconds of "boarding."

And boarding makes it sound like I was actually doing something. In reality you can't actually turn and you don't go very fast, so all I was doing was pointing downhill and wishing I was on the snow. :) But it was worth trying once and all the kids loved watching me.

Oh, and did I mention that it was windy? It was probably the windiest place I've ever been. Here's a picture I was trying to take of me about to go riding, but all you can see is wind blown sand. I managed to get a slightly better picture of me on my board, but it was a struggle. The wind and sand gets everywhere, it was surprisingly frustrating trying to get things done up there. And, checking with visitor center, the winds were bring in more clouds, more rain, and maybe even some snow! Which meant it was time for me to get the hell out of the Rockies.

While driving I was shocked (and way too excited) when I saw my first real life tumbleweed. Just like on Loony Toons! Actually, it wasn't "a tumbleweed," it was more like a heard. They seemed to cross the road in packs, kind of like gazelles crossing a river in Africa. Strength in numbers. Oh, and I was filling up at a gas station when I heard a loud "mooo!" right behind me. I turned around to find myself eye-to-eye with a trailer full of cows. This are just things you don't see in Seattle or San Francisco. :)

So I packed up yesterday and moved southwest, towards the Four Corners. I drove through a little town called Durango, which ended up catching my eye. I'm a sucker for small towns with nice downtown districts. Well that's a bit of a lie. I'm a sucker for a local brewery that's showing the basketball playoffs and has live music. Even the locals were there! Sadly the weather is still chasing me, they're now forecasting snow in Durango tonight! But I'll be in New Mexico tonight, I'm ready to go find some desert heat.