Our 1st morning, we ate breakfast at the “W Café” in Gunnison – highly recommend – we ate there two days in a row. Our planned ride for the day was to the ‘Great Sand Dunes National Park’ at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Range in SE Colorado. We headed east & then south on Hwy 114 through the Gunnison National Forest. Rode through a beautiful winding canyon of tall evergreens & stopped at the top of Buffalo Pass (elev. 1,080 ft).
Everyone is very excited at this point, the Iowans are not only experiencing a beautiful Colorado ride, but they really enjoyed the tight curves going through the canyon. I’m hesitant now, as I know it’s going to be a couple hours on straight highways once we get to the town of Saguache & the San Luis Valley. So we discuss it & decide to stick with our plans. Once you enter the valley, keep looking towards the base of the mountain range as the dunes are visible for some distance. The dunes cover an area 5 x 7 miles & reach heights of 700 ft. They are the result of westerly winds carrying sand across the valley for thousands of years, and then dropping the grains of sand as the wind rises to cross the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. As we were all anxious to keep riding, we didn’t spend much time there (I have in the past hiked up the dunes which is a unique experience also). We looked around a bit, took some photos, and then took off straight west to Del Norte. Had lunch at Rumors; friendly service, great burgers.
Next Page: Durango2004_Page3
If you didn't have time to visit all the pages in a row and want to start over a specific spot, just click a link:Durango2004_Page2 Durango2004_Page3 Durango2004_Page4 Durango2004_Page5 Durango2004_Page6 Durango2004_Page7 Durango2004_Page8 Durango2004_Page9 Durango2004_Page10 Durango2004_Page11 Durango2004_Page12