Surprises in Alamosa

Alamosa is a small farming community in Southeast Colorado. While maybe not on the easiest roads to pick to get back to Vegas, it is definitely not out of the way. We had one purpose to head by there on the way back – the Woman’s brother Kevin was working in Alamosa, so she could pay a visit and get some needed family time. But when we got there, we had some other nice surprises in store.

We met Kevin late in the afternoon when we arrived. He had a couple of nice local attractions lined up for us. The first was Zapata Falls in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range. A short but fairly steep half mile trail got us to a narrow gash in the rock face. This is where the rock hopping across the Zapata Creek began. We ended up crossing the creek 3 times – rather than rock hop, the Woman actually changed into her water shoes and just walked through the creek. That idea being just too cold for me, I took my chances and ended up being pretty much bone dry.

Shinnying out on some more rocks and bending under an overhang, we finally made it to the well hidden falls. The water comes jetting out of a crevice maybe a hundred feet up, caroms side to side on the crevice walls, and crashes into the creek at the base. While a bit of a challenge to get to, even the Woman agreed that it was worth the work to see it.

Next, Kevin took us to a National Park that we not only hadn't been to, but didn't even know existed. Great Sand Dunes National Park was designated as a National Monument by Herbert Hoover in 1932. It stayed in that limbo status until 2000 when Congress established it as a National Preserve and significantly expanded the lands under US government control. In 2008, Congress finally established it as a National Park, 76 years after Hoover set it aside for protection on behalf of the citizens of the US.

The dunes in the park are alleged to be the highest in the US. Apparently erosion sands from all the streams in the San Juan Mountain range West of here were deposited in the San Luis Valley floor. The prevailing winds here are strong, and are nearly always from Southwest to Northeast. Over the eons, these prevailing winds blew all the deposited sands across the valley floor until they bumped up against the curved barrier of the Sangre de Cristo Range at the Northeast corner of the San Luis Valley, and thereby formed the dunes.

Whether they are the highest or not, they are impressive. Mountain creeks in the Sangre de Cristo Range run along the edge of both the Eastern and Western edges of the dunes, so just next to the dunes is essentially wetlands with abundant birds and other wildlife, as well as flora. Arcing behind the dunes are the snow covered peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Range. It is literally a buffet for the eyes.

We did all our National Park stuff – hiked some trails, visited the Visitor Center and watched the video, but best of all we ascended some of the dunes. You can rent what are essentially snowboards at the general store at the entrance to the park, but that experience just wasn't on our bucket list. Kevin indicated that he had tried that before with his sons, and their experience was not something he remembered enthusiastically. So, we just hoped to be able to see some other young’uns give it a go. We did see a couple folk hiking up the dune faces with boards strapped to their shoulders, but it looked like they were heading to the very top, and it would probably be an hour or more before they reached it, so we chose not to wait.

We had a nice evening of dinner in Colectiva and playing some Zar, while catching up on all the family things and getting some needed family time. With the surprises that awaited here that we weren’t expecting on top of Kevin time, it was a great visit.

On our way out of Alamosa on the edge of the small town of Monte Vista Colorado, we saw was claimed to be, and likely is, the world’s only Movie Manor. A Best Western hotel there was a two story classic motel design, built in a sweeping arc and with huge picture windows looking out at the center point of the arc. At that center point, they built a mammoth drive-in movie screen, along with the requisite parking lot facing the screen with speakers on poles. So, you can either drive in there to see the movie from your car, or you can sit in the comfort of your hotel room and watch the movie out your picture window – it was a comical sight!

Talk to you soon!