Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Hello there, and thanks so much for joining us here! You are probably wondering what this podcast is all about? In this podcast, we will talk about all sorts of outdoor adventures, but primarily, for now, we will focus on hiking and backpacking. No other outdoor adventure is so accessible to so many people! So please join us as we talk about how to hike/backpack and learn how to hike any length trail from your local neighborhood parks to those long trails such as the Appalachian and others worldwide! Remember... "in every walk with nature; one receives far more than he seeks... - John Muir " See you on the trail!
Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Exploring North America's Tallest Sand Dunes: A Journey Through Great Sand Dunes National Park
Note: Audio Only, Please see YouTube for the Video Version
The tallest dunes in North America reside unexpectedly in Colorado, where wind and water have shaped massive sand formations surrounded by mountain ranges. This remarkable landscape serves as both a natural basin that collects eroded sand and a historic landmark, first documented by Zebulon Pike in 1807.
• Natural basin surrounded by mountains creates perfect conditions for sand collection
• Sand surfing opportunities available on the dunes
• Medano Creek flows seasonally at the base of the dunes
• Multiple hiking options and off-road driving available for exploration
• Archaeological evidence shows Clovis people hunted mammoths and ancient bison here
• Three distinct ecosystems converge: desert, prairie, and mountain habitats
• Weather can change dramatically from pleasant to snow-covered with limited visibility
• Four-wheel drive vehicles needed beyond the "Point of No Return" on Medano Pass Road
• Sabka wetlands beneath the dunes provide crucial water sources for wildlife
Please send us a message using the link! Thanks for listening!
This one's going to be a quick one. Today, guys, I was in the neighborhood, thought I'd stop in to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Let's take a look at the sign here. Welcome to the tallest dunes in North America shaped by the forces of wind, water. Huge dunes are textures, shadows, habitats and experiences Pretty cool. Let's go take a look.
Speaker 1:You might be asking yourself why is this here in the middle of Colorado? The answer is simple yet complex. You have these immense dune fields surrounded by a ring of mountains. You have mountains over here and all the way. Because of that, it's kind of like a natural little basin that collects all the sand as it erodes from the surrounding mountains. People coming towards me and people that are behind me did sand surfing. How crazy is that? Definitely want to come back and do that, just to revisit this sign. They say shoes, not sandalsals, because it can get very hot in the summertime. Protect the pets feet and watch out for lightning.
Speaker 1:A couple different hikes you can do. Just depends on what you want to do and where you want to go. The surrounding ridges you can also venture into. There's some off-road driving that goes up that way Somewhere, I'm not exactly sure where, probably down off the paved road as well. Over here in the far side of the parking lot, there is a changing area. It looks like a restroom, but I'm not sure there's a pit toilet which I just used. What a lovely view of the dunes, though it's so crazy to look at. Right here behind me is the Mountainville Trailhead which takes you to Muska Pass and some other places, and it's right across the road from the dune field.
Speaker 1:This panel right here talks about Zebulon Pike. He crossed the southwestern part of the Louisiana Purchase and he camped here January 28, 1807. And they had just crossed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. They were very worn out from that and they were supposed to look for those southern, southwestern boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase and try to find the source of the Arkansas Red Rivers. Lieutenant Pike was the first person to describe the sand dunes in writing. Isn't that neat? Even though we're in a dry, sandy environment here at the dune field area, there are streams out here I mean north over here and at the base there's kind of like a little dark spot. You may not be able to see it on the camera. That's the start of Medano Creek. As they get more and more snow melt. I heard one of the people in the visitor center. It will get very full and, just like anything else out here, water is critical.
Speaker 1:One thing about the dunes is they do serve as a landmark for people. A lot of people use these. There is a road here Medano Pass, primitive Road, four-wheel drive High Clearance and the Moscow Pass Trail, which both follow tough, rough, historic routes over the Sangre de Cristos, which are located right behind me, right here. Well, that was a quick and dirty of the great sand dunes. I'm hoping to come back sometime soon, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Spend some longer time here. Definitely hit like.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed this video, subscribe so you don't miss that. And here's a little sweeping view of everything Blanca Peak and the dunes. The landscape you see before you is evidence of a changing world. You have fossil evidence of these large bison looking creatures. They look like bison because they are bison, but they're a different species than modern bison that we see out here in the west. These are bison that we see out here in the West. These are bison antiquaeus, which were a more primitive version of bison a prior version, if you will and they found those bones here on Great Sand Dunes National Park and they also found Clovis spear points, used for hunting very large mammals such as Colombian mammoths, so large lakes existed here on the valley floor. You can see the valley goes a long, long way and it's pretty much ringed entirely by mountains. Things dried out. They had lush wetlands and they were replaced by grasslands and forests, and the mammoths that were here were extinct, and a huge, now extinct bison, which I already mentioned, survived longer and they were able to hunt those, but they didn't last as long either.
Speaker 1:Here in the Great Sand Dunes you have different animals that kind of interlope for lack of a better term such as proghorn, antelope, elk, burrowing owls, because you have a mixture of desert species, prairie species and more mountain species coming through here. The watershed is where all the water collects. Up in the mountains you have the dune field. Below that you have sand sheets called the sabka. The sabka are a form of wetlands where the sand is saturated and that's places where birds and other creatures can get water. So pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:This is really like a two-part video that I included together. One was when I visited in, say, early April of 2025, after I went to Leadville. I just dropped by for a few minutes to check it out, and the weather actually was surprisingly good. I came back in May when I could spend a little bit longer time, and if you continue watching the video, you're going to see that it didn't go as planned. Hope you still enjoy the video and you'll keep watching. Back to the video.
Speaker 1:Hey folks, welcome to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. I was here a couple of weeks ago when I was coming out of Leadville Been in Pagosa for a couple of days, wanted to stop by and do some things here in the park. Wasn't really anticipating this weather, though I came from this direction. Over here I'm at what you call the Point of no Return in Modano Pass. Let's look at it real quick. This is where I want to start the video today. Beyond this point, you need a high clearance four-wheel drive vehicle with low capability and there's soft sand ahead that might hinder your progress, and also today there's snow. Anyway, hope you'll stick with me to check out Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. You can stay in the backcountry. There are some tables here. I wouldn't be staying in the backcountry tonight because it looks cold and I'm just not prepared for it.
Speaker 1:It's not just sand dunes here. The sand dunes actually are over there. You just can't see them because the weather is so crappy over there. You just can't see them because the weather is so crappy. Let's walk up here to take a look at some of the trailhead stuff. Through the magic of video, we will magically end up at the trailhead sign, if you look on there. There's two designated places on here. That shows us where we are. Here's the visitor center and here's where you come into the park.
Speaker 1:I drove past the campground to the left side of it and drove to the point of no return, which is basically where you can get with a regular vehicle, a non-four-wheel drive vehicle, even though mine is. With the weather conditions I wasn't necessarily sure I wanted to do this, but it looks okay. High dune is right here, stardune is here and then you have other dunes out in the dune field all around here. This is all wilderness area where the dune area is along some other areas of the park. This is a topographic profile plus underlying geology. Here we're here, at the point of no return. The Pinyon Flats Campground is to our south. This shows you different places that you might end up on. I don't know that it's just a hardcore off-road travel on this road At times I imagine it could be, but we're going to go check out some other parts of the park.
Speaker 1:I had tried to make this more of of a lengthy video but unfortunately, because of the weather, just not going to happen. Let's take a look. I'm on the entrance road. The window's a little foggy, not too bad. That's the visibility that I have. Don't think I'll be able to do anything here, so I think I'll just continue down the road to the store. So I hope you enjoyed that video. If you did give it a thumbs up, think about subscribing to the channel for future content. I know it didn't really turn out like I wanted it to, but I hope you still enjoyed it. If you have questions, comments etc. Let me know below and stay tuned for another video and other videos, of course, about other places, other topics, tips, tricks, etc. Product reviews, all that kind of good stuff. And until you, you next time watch one of these videos up here. Thanks for watching and your support. See you on the trail. Bye.
