Sometimes even the best laid plans get thrown out the window and this weekend was certainly a case of that. The wife and I intended to head down to the Sangre Cristo mountain range intending to visit Bishop's Castle, the Mission Wolf sanctuary, then culminate the weekend by running over Medano Pass into Great Sand Dunes National Park. We got off to a bit of a later start on Friday night and made it down to the San Isabel National Forest where we planned to pull off and establish camp for the night. The road I had earmarked as being the one to head down turned out to be a private, gated road that clearly wasn't going to work so we had to call an audible and head down the road a few more miles. We got a bit deeper into the National Forest and somewhere around 10 pm, near absolutely nothing, we rounded a corner and came across a dog in the road. My wife was able to chase her down, and it turns out the poor little thing had no tags or collar, was exhausted, cold, underweight, a bit mangy, and hobbling around with a broken leg. We scooped her up and brought her with us. At the moment I'm not sure what the future will bring for Chewie (named her), but if our suspicions that she was dumped are true then she will have a home with us.
IMG_1889 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
We rigged up a diaper for her as her back side was covered in poop and she snuggled in between my wife and I in bed that night. We got up the next morning and reformulated our plans as camping another night with a dog in bad shape seemed a bit irresponsible, so the plan was truncated to Medano Pass and Great Sand Dunes.
Medano Pass is billed as a very unique trail to Colorado as it starts in the mountains through the aspens before dropping down to the river and culminating in Great Sand Dunes National Park, another treasure for Colorado. As fall has arrived the leaves have started changing I thought it would be the perfect way to usher in the season. The trail starts down a 7ish mile road that cuts through a private, stunning ranch. I can see why they chose this piece of property.
IMG_1879 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
The entrance into the National Forest is pretty subdued, nothing more than a cattle guard and this sign announcing that you are now on the Medano Pass Primitive Road.
20160924-DSC_1725 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
The trail climbs up the pass pretty quickly, though it was a nice easy cruise up with the truck in low gear to chug up the steep grades. There wasn't anything really difficult on this side, just a nice pristine little single wide trail through pine trees and through the forest. With a nice crisp breeze blowing through the windows it was the type of trail run that only fall can bring. We crested the pass and came down the other side into some more open mountain meadows where the fall colors really started to show themselves.
20160924-DSC_1730 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
The road down the other side was mellow, but difficult enough to keep most people away. We saw a few vehicles roll by at the beginning but after we crested the pass there was no one until we hit the park. Just the way I like it.
20160924-DSC_1727 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
The trail was a beautiful mix of aspens and water crossings as we lost elevation. The leaves had definitely reached peak in some places.
20160924-DSC_1735 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
The water crossings were fun. Enough to splash in, but not deep enough to worry about drowning something.
IMG_1884 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
The proliferation of established camp sites was a good indicator that we were nearly into the park. Our suspicions were confirmed when we rounded a corner and saw the first of the dunes in front of us.
IMG_1888 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
My only complaint about the journey through the park were the number of idiots using the single wide ride as their personal baja track. There was a Jeep full of teenage girls that had to lock them up coming around a corner and almost slid into my front end. They were far from the only ones roosting their way down the road.
The big payoff at the end is the ability to play in the tallest sand dunes in North America. Being laden with 3 dogs we didn't do much more than walk around and play in the sand a bit. The rescued dog needed some attention and we figured we better boogie rather than hanging around. Back into the truck, out of 4wd, and onto the pavement we went on our way home.
IMG_1893 by
Tim Souza, on Flickr
For those concerned, we gave the pup a bath when we got home to clean off all of the poop, removed the huge eye boogies she had, gave her plenty of food and water and put her to bed. She's in good spirits and a very sweet dog. She is now up to date on all of her vaccinations and we are working on putting some weight back on her while we figure out how to proceed.
IMG_1818 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
. I begrudgingly threw it in reverse and proceeded to put on a clinic for him and his companion in reverse wheeling as we had to go damn near 1/4 mile back up the trail. I know it doesn't sound very far but it certainly feels like it when you are going back through everything you just came down.
