Day 31 - White Sands

Pristine white sand dunes with brooding moutains surrounding in all directions, White Sands is a photographers dream. Arriving to the park at 430pm I watched the visitor center video and drove out to the dunes for very short hikes I search of the perfect vantage point for sunset.

A eight mile road goes into the heart of the dunes and halfway in turns from pavement to white sand surface. There is one longish hike at the end of the road, in the most white perfect sand section of the park, so I ended up there by 6pm. I packed my day bag with water and food, brought my camera and tripod, and hiking sticks and set out. I hiked until 7pm following stakes in the sand and then turned around so not to get lost in the dark. I got back to my car just as the sunset was starting to glow. Five other people were there, snapping away at the pure perfection of the White Sands sunset. One of the Chinese guys had taken pics of me hiking out and hiking in and must have taken 500 shots in ten minutes.

Having done my best to capture the white sand beauty and feeling alert, I decided to drive on two and a half more hours towards Albequerque so I could resupply at Costco and get an oil change done early the next day. I pulled into a Walmart parking lot at 1130pm, put up my blackout windows and crashed after a big day.

Here are my white sands pics.

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Day 57 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Ever since I decided to go west for my big trip, I had dreamed of high mountain lakes with snowy peaks arching in every direction, with chilly air making every moment crisp, and with clear skies bringing all into perfect focus-- pure bliss. Today was the first of many great mountain lake days to come. Hiking here was far easier here than in the San Juans because the snow was packed down on the trail, but I brought my mini crampons for the downhill. I made it safely past a narrow ridge with narly black peaks across the gorge (pic 1), then up to Mills Lake (pic 2) then Jewel Lake then the Loch (pic 3) then down before the afternoon rain started falling. I hiked around some lower, more accessible lakes but the sky was now overcast and pictures no good. I drove up the open portion of the Ridge road amid a very light dusting of snow before heading back to camp for dinner and bedtime. I did manage to capture some fine Elk grazing in a meadows on the return trip and a g...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

Day 51 - Canyonlands Needles Pt 3

A deep connection to the nature surrounding you comes from the solitude of solo travel, but sometimes it is nice to have a companion! I ran into David, a retired telecom exec from Canada a few days ago on the Syncline Loop trail at Canyonlands Island in the Sky. Then I ran into him again halfway through my Chesler Park hike two days ago, then again later in the hike, finishing the last two miles together. David hiked his favorite trail, the Peekaboo trail yesterday, and said I could join him, but my heart was set on confluence trail, so we hiked separately. We did share a campsite though and exchanged travel stories. David was 55 and had retired at 50 from a high-level international job with Nortel and was now traveling full-time. We instantly bonded over our solo travel style. He outclassed me by leagues. He had trekked one month in Nepal, then another month in India, then some months in Asia. He had hiked and skied and adventured all over the western U.S. and Canada....

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