Canyons and Sand Dunes in Colorado?

 On our way back home from our Colorado vacation, we drove west across to the Black Canyon of Gunnison.  It was rather stunning because you are driving across what appears to be fairly flat and uninteresting landscape and then suddenly you go driving up and then there is this massive gash.  

 

 

Of course actually getting there isn't as easy as all that, but you know what I mean.  I am by no means a photographer, so if you want to see stunning photos of this, or any of the other places I mention, you can find them on line.  At this point in our vacation I was still feeling the effects of altitude sickness, and as you can imagine, peering down into this chasm didn't exactly help any, so I didn't concentrate on getting the best pics.  But it was worth the trip to see it.  

There are hiking trails there and if you are in to hiking I think it would be a great place to do so.

On the way home we headed down the Million Dollar Highway, which is literally a cliff hanger of a road to travel.  It is route 550 and goes from Silverton to Ouray, Colorado.  If you Google it you will find numerous suggestions as to why or how it got that name; the gorgeous views, the cost to build it, the amount of ore that remained in the fill of the road after it was built....  Whichever the original reason, it is still a lovely drive.  There are all sorts of ranches, and streams and all along there.  Lovely.

There are numerous remnants of mines along the route; some might still be in operation, I don't know.  

From there we headed over to Alamosa where we spent the night.  Then the next morning we visited what I least expected to find in Colorado:

Sand dunes in Colorado!  This is a fascinating place to visit.  Here is the little blurb you find when you Google about it.

"The dunes were formed by the right combinations of wind, water and sediment.  Creeks and streams brought in large amounts of sediment and sand into the valley.  Wind then blew the sane toward the bend in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where opposing storm winds helped squeeze the sand into the tall dunes you see today."

 

Above is Medano Creek; which is part of the above process.  This creek, and others from the mountains, will flood on occasion, carrying tons of sand and sediment from the dunes out into the valley.  As the sand dries the wind will blow it back to the dune.  A never ending geological dance.  

The image below is looking back toward the visitor center and parking lot.  You can barely see Medano Creek at the very edge of the greenery.  

In the picture below you get a sense of the scale of these dunes; though it doesn't capture it's grandeur by any means.

The teensy dots out on the sand, over on the left edge there, are people; and they aren't even far enough out to be at the top of the dunes.  The figures on the right, closer in the foreground, are Gary and Gail.  

Here are a couple, of many, who had brought something to try sledding on the dunes.  

 

And what is it about sand, or life in general, that you want to leave your mark in it?  The eternal human quest to have made a difference in life, to be eternal in some way, I think.  

 

From top to bottom; Gary, me, Ellen.

It is obvious that Ellen got Gary's long slender feet.  LOL 

This blog post has wandered around quite a bit, so I will leave it for now.  I have about covered the highlights of our Colorado Vacation.  There are a few more random photos I have to post, but that will wait on another day.