Great Sand Dunes National Park Highpoint

Great Sand Dunes National Park Highpoint (10,520ft)

The view from the highpoint towards the sand dunes, with Blanca Peak in the distance

Eric and Jake, Nov 9, 2019

Friday night I flew to Denver for the long Veteran’s Day weekend. The plan was to try to climb three national park highpoints in Colorado over the next three days. We would start with Great Sand Dunes (10,520ft), then Black Canyon of the Gunnison (9,040ft), then hopefully we would be acclimated enough to climb Longs Peak (14,255ft) in Rocky Mountain National Park.

I landed at 11:30pm and met up with Jake, who had flown in from Boston. We took a shuttle to the Dollar car rental to pick up a Jeep Wrangler I’d reserved. Unfortunately they said they were out of Jeeps, so we got a 4wd Chevy Tahoe. The 4wd would be important for the approach road of our first highpoint.

The start of the rough section after Point of No Return

We left the airport a bit after midnight and drove south on I25 to a trailhead for Mt Herman, just outside Monument. This was the closest trailhead I could find along our route. By 2am we were asleep in the back of the Tahoe. In hindsight it was nice to be able to sleep inside the vehicle, which would not have been as easy in a Jeep.

Saturday morning we picked up some groceries in town and continued south. By noon we entered Great Sand Dunes National Park and saw the impressive and strangely out-of-place sand dunes at the base of some 14,000ft mountains. It looked like the sahara. There were no staff at the entrance gate, so we didn’t have to pay an entrance fee. I guess November is the off season.

Crossing Medano Creek

I drove up to the Point of No Return, and pulled off to read the warning sign. The next 4 miles of road were

supposedly very rough and sandy, and the sign warned only 4wd was allowed (no AWD or 2WD), and it was recommend to deflate the tires to not sink too deep in the sand.

Jake got out and deflated the tires to 24psi each as I monitored the pressure gauge in the car. We then proceeded. The road was indeed very sandy, and the Tahoe just barely had enough clearance since an annoying flexible plastic piece hung down low off the front bumper. I definitely needed the 4wd in the deep sand.

Crossing the dunes with the highpoint in the background

We crossed one deep creek (Medano Creek) then reached the trailhead soon after. There was just enough room to squeeze in next to a truck. We quickly packed up and were moving by 2pm. The trail was sandy but well-maintained. After an hour or so we crossed a large sand dune following wooden poles, then left the trail due south of the highpoint.

The highpoint is not actually a summit, but instead a point on the side of the ridge, since the park boundary is a line of latitude. There is no trail to the highpoint, but the terrain is pretty open. I led the way as we passed through scrub bushes, then up the ridge through open forest. We had to avoid the occasional cacti on the ground, and scrambled up a few boulders.

On the summit

Around 3:30pm I saw a boundary sign on a tree, then a cairn with a summit register. We took a break at the

highpoint and admired the setting sun on the dunes far below. We hung out until around 4pm, then headed back down. This time I found a more efficient route and we reached the car just at sunset.

I quickly started driving out. In the last mile we saw a small 2wd car that had managed to get down the sandy road but could not get back out. A few guys in Jeeps were there to help, so we continued on towards our next destination, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.