Day 9: Monday 21st June 2010: Farmington to Dalhart, Texas (Miles to Date: 2296)

Although we had a long way to travel we decided to have a leisurely start and enjoy our Cave for as long as possible. But sadly we had to move on. With great foresight we had not carried all our bags down the cliff to the Cave so loading up was a relatively painless process.

The road we took carried us from New Mexico north through to Colorado. We climbed up on to the Colorado plateau and crossed towards the majestic Rocky Mountains. Finally we said goodbye to the deserts and a welcome hello to alpine forests and pastures. The scenery was truly splendid as we weaved our way through the mountains and over high passes. Mind you it would be a different story here in the winter months.

Mark had planned to visit another National Park en route, this time a less well known one called Great Dunes National Park. Most of us would assume that sand dunes would be found by a sea, lake or in a desert. Well the tallest dunes in the United States are actually found at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which reach from Southern Colorado down to Mexico. The dune-field here boasts several dunes that are over 700 feet in height. The formation of these dunes is down to the particular geography of this area. Sand is carried down from the mountains by Medano Creek, which deposits the sand down in the valley below the west facing side of the mountains. When the Creek dries up in the summer months, the sands are picked up by the prevailing westerly winds and formed into the sand dunes we see today. Eventually the sand is blown over to the east side of the dune-field where it is picked up by the Medano Creek, and the process starts all over again.

By the time we reached the National Park it was late in the afternoon so we had to make choices about what to do in the limited time available. Our first priority was for Jack and Emily to do their Junior Rangers badges. This is now a well established tradition and means that they have to truly engage in the history and geography of the sites we visit. Whilst Jack and Emily were working on their booklets the grown-up Hoblets disappeared to watch a fascinating film on the unique ecology of the dunes area, which includes sand dunes, creeks, mountains, lakes and wetlands. As soon as Jack and Emily had completed their books we went to the Ranger on duty, who was very jolly, and got them sworn in as Junior Rangers for the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Immediately after this deed was done we headed out to the dune-fields themselves. From a distance they look impressive, close-up they are stunning! From the parking lot we crossed the Medano Creek, which feeds the dune-field: its cool waters were so refreshing on this hot day! To get to the dunes we then crossed a flat sand basin that was about half a mile across, it was hard work walking as the sand is dry and soft so our feet sank in with every step. Finally we reached the dunes themselves, by which time we were exhausted from crossing the basin, but they had to be climbed! To reach the highest dunes would have been a major trek and we had limited time so we settled for a less ambitious walk to the top of the nearest dunes, which were still about 100 feet in height. As we climbed up these dunes the wind picked up significantly, whipping up the loose sand, and blasting us with fine grains. It was not a lot of fun! We reached our goal and there was nothing more to do than run down the face of the dune, except for Jack who decided to roll down. At the bottom we got some relief from the wind, and this is where the grown-ups decided to stay whilst Jack and Emily climbed back up so they could run down again, although Jack was by now queasy from his previous roll down. Other people had bought various flat bottom items to use as sledges to slide down the dunes which looked great fun! Anyway time was marching on and we still had five hours of driving in front of us so we set off back across the dunes to our car.

From the Great Sand Dunes National Park we headed south and east through Colorado and New Mexico into Texas for our night stop-over in Dalhart.

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