Great Sand Dunes and Penitente Canyon

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After along travel day we arrived at the Great Sand Dunes National Park late and made camp in the dark. In the morning it was quite the surprise to Lisa, who had never seen the dunes, to wake up to a landscape that seemed out of this world. The Great Sand Dunes are in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado and are next to the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. The dunes take up 30 square miles and are the tallest dunes in North America. We had a great time climbing the dunes which was quite challenging, it felt like one step forward and two steps back. We had to climb up quite a ways to get a sweeping view of the expansiveness of the area and where the dunes meet the mountains. It was like a sunny day on the beach but without the ocean and in the middle of southern Colorado! There are two creeks that run around the dunes for three months in the spring (April-June) and it would a lot of fun to go back then.

After our sand dunes adventure we drove across the valley to Penitente Canyon. Ryan had been waiting for and dreaming of this day for years. He had visited Penitente in 2006 with friends from medical school but only for one day of climbing. The canyon has over 300 sport climbing routes, not to mention the additional routes in the small canyons around it. We had a great camping spot, close to the entrance to the canyon and fairly isolated from other campers (of note, there is no water at the campground). It had been a long time since we both had climbed outside. Ryan remembered his slab climbing skills fairly quickly while Lisa will need some extra time. We hiked, biked and trail ran around the area and had a great time over the three days that we were there. From Penitente we headed north, across the state of Colorado to spend the weekend in Steamboat Springs.

Moonrise over Penitente

the Virgin Wall