One Last Adventure

As many of you know, my best and oldest friend Nate and his wife are moving to China in August to teach at an international school. Before he left we decided that we needed to get together for one last adventure. He came out last week and we headed to southern Colorado for a few days. Our first stop was in Canon City, where we rafted through Royal Gorge and under the highest suspension bridge in the world. Unfortunately, there are no pictures from this part of the trip because we were too busy surviving some Class V rapids. It was an amazing ride. Neither of us had ever done rapids like that before. We knew we were in for a ride when the guide told us about the upcoming Class V area by pointing ahead and saying, "You see where the river looks like it ends? That's where they start." He wasn't kidding.

After drying off we headed down to the Sand Dunes. For those who have never seen them, they are pretty impressive. From a distance it just looks like part of the Sahara Desert is sitting in front of the mountains. We went in the evening on one day and did some exploring and then went back the next to climb the two highest dunes. High Dune is about a mile from the parking area and has an elevation gain of 650 ft. from there. It doesn't sound like much, but hiking on sand (that has a surface temperature of 140 degrees) is not easy. After getting to High Dune we decided to head for the highest dune in the park, Star Dune. It is 750 ft. tall and another mile and a half hike. On the hike out there and back we didn't see another person. It felt like we were in the middle of the desert all alone. Sort of surreal. The climb up Star Dune was absolutely brutal. The angle was extremely steep and with every step you would sink backwards 6-8 inches. It didn't help that we were doing this during the hottest part of the day either. We survived and conquered the top before heading back. On the way back we ended up walking back up the sandy creek that runs along the base of the dunes. The shoes and socks came off very quickly and we had a nice cool hike for the last mile or so.

All in all, it was a great way to send Nate off. Enjoy the Far East buddy.

Starting out from the base area. Those dunes don't look that high.

The view from the top of High Dune.

Two sets of tracks in the sand.

Looking up at Star Dune. This picture does not do it justice.

Happy to be at the top of Star Dune.