Five National Parks in Five Days (Day One)

I have been planning to visit the three national parks I hadn’t visited in Colorado since my last trip to the southwestern United States in 2022.  Since there are only about 650 miles from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Great Sand Dunes National Park–the closest I am likely to come in the foreseeable future, I decided that the opportunity should not be passed up. This would, of course, mean adding it and the other two parks in Colorado to my trip. Then, I had the chance to finally get to Isle Royale in Michigan and to Wind Cave national, which I didn’t know existed when I visited Hot Springs, South Dakota, in 2018. The boat trip to Isle Royale had to be scheduled in advance, so I would have to go from Tulsa to Copper Harbor, Michigan (Mapquest mapped that as 2,670 miles) in five days.

Could I pull it off?

Day One: Great Sand Dunes National Park

The park order was determined by map location. The Great Sand Dunes National Park was the closest to Tulsa, thus it was the first stop. I didn’t post on Facebook that I was doing this until I crossed into New Mexico, not exactly a direct route from Oklahoma to the DMV. The route took me onto the famed Chisum Trail and the Santa Fe Trail.

The further west I drove, the more dominant the Rocky Mountains became in the background. I took many, many pictures featuring the peaks, including several panoramic shots, and they will either be sprinkled within my posts or available for viewing through the pictures page.

The weather was cloudy but warm enough that I was able to wear a short-sleeve top. As usual, my first stop was the park’s visitor center to get up-to-date information about what to expect and whether there were scenic drives I could take advantage of. Unfortunately, most of the park–especially traveling on the dunes themselves–was better suited for hikers. Still, the exhibits and documentary film about the park provided lots of interesting information about the history of the park and its topography. I found it amazing that the dunes existed at all, much less the various species of land and water creatures called it home.

The picture below, taken from the visitor center, gives a sense of just how “great” the sand dunes are with the Rockies in the background.

I was able to drive to a spot where visitors could park and walk (slide or whatever) on the dunes. The little black dots visible in the picture to the right are people venturing on the dunes. The sand seemed to be especially difficult to remove based on the efforts of those leaving the area to knock it from their clothes, but no one appeared particularly dismayed by the situation. I stayed inside SB since walking in the sand wasn’t something I wanted to do, and I could imagine the task of trying to remove it from Have-Seat-Will-Travel Three.

Below are some of the other pictures I took while at Great Sand Dunes:

All of the pictures I took from Day One are available at https://singin1.pics/piwigo/index.php?/category/5Parks-in-5-Days-Day-1-Great-Sand-Dunes-051925.

Watching was entertaining for a while, but in due course, I decided that it would be a good idea to make the approximately four-hour drive to Mesa Verde so I could have much of the next day exploring the park. I was sufficiently moved by the surrounding landscape to take yet another panorama:

But I really should have been paying attention to the cloud cover since I was drawing closer and closer to the snow-covered mountains. Unfortunately, I didn’t, until it was too late to do anything about the snowfall and the suddenly hazardous driving conditions. I’ve lived in areas where snow falls–except during my ten years in Florida. And one would think that 18 years of Iowa winters would have made me comfortable driving in such conditions. One would be wrong, especially for me driving through the twists and turns of mountain passes. Suddenly, the beautiful Rocky Mountains weren’t so beautiful to me, and I said more than one open-eyed prayer along the way.

Thankfully, the traffic wasn’t heavy, so SB and I finally left the snow and slippery roads behind us and completed the drive to Mesa Verde before sundown (BTW, we were now in Mountain Time, so we gained an extra hour as we traveled west from Oklahoma).

I entered the park from its northeastern entrance, very close to the visitor center, which was closed for the day. The park was one of the more “civilized” ones I have visited with a gas station, laundry and shower facilities and other amenities for overnight guests. I had a reservation to stay overnight, but I had forgotten that I had originally planned to stay at Great Sand Dunes, not Mesa Verde. It was too late to change the reservation, so I had to improvise and use always prepped items stored in SB.

Still, the weather system was headed east. I could very possibly have found myself stuck at Great Sand Dunes in the snow overnight.

Thus ended Day One.

As always, I thank the Lord for granting me the stamina to make the trip, the damn good reflexes to steer the Silver Bullet (SB) as she needed to be guided, and the ability to enjoy His handiwork as it whizzes by my windshield.

I am especially thankful that the unplanned snow driving occurred without mishap. It may have been a good thing that I drove through the storm to the other side rather than having the storm catch me on the eastern side of the Rockies.