Medano lake
Colorado Sand Dunes: July 13-15 (1 Viewer)
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Nice! Looks like a beautiful day.
Great mini-vacation. Four nights, Wed - Sunday. I had rain every afternoon, sometimes until midnight. I stayed up in Medano Canyon in the primitive sites. The parking lot campground was $20/night. The sites in the canyon were free, but one should have had 4x4 to get to them. Ya, should have. No water at the dunes. I stayed in two different sites, for chuckles and grins. I did one hike up to Medano Lake. So here are the pics.
The sign at the bottom. Amazing how many people ignored the advice.
This was at the top off Medano Pass. I didn't see the bears even though I had two rangers warn me about momma and two cubs.
Crossing #9. I was amazed how many people were afraid of this crossing. My camp was just below this.
It was only this deep.
The sign at the bottom. Amazing how many people ignored the advice.
This was at the top off Medano Pass. I didn't see the bears even though I had two rangers warn me about momma and two cubs.
Crossing #9. I was amazed how many people were afraid of this crossing. My camp was just below this.
It was only this deep.
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Two camp pics.
Awning was more for the rain than the sun. A RTT is in my near future.
Beaver pond.
What a beaver dam does to a road when the water has no place else to go.
Awning was more for the rain than the sun. A RTT is in my near future.
Beaver pond.
What a beaver dam does to a road when the water has no place else to go.
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On Wednesday and Thursday I hardly saw anybody. On Friday the traffic picked up. On Saturday, it was a freeway with people both coming up the canyon, and coming from over Medano Pass. Lots and lots of Jeeps. Mostly stock, but some nicely built. I saw one 80-series with a FJ55 retro paint job of baby blue below and white above. I also had a stone-cold stock LX 470. Guy said he had just bought it and this was his first run. Then there was the guy in the FJC that took a wrong line in the rut above and ended up in it. I offered to give him a tug, but he just drove out of it. Dang. Then of course there were the folks in Jeep Liberty's, a Subaru or two, and a Chevy something AWD car. One of the Liberty's was with a pair of Suzuki's, one mostly stock, but the other over built (on 35's?).
With all the traffic I saw going up yesterday I expected the camp sites up stream to be full. Nope, not a single one had campers this morning when I went over the pass to I-25. There were also zero campers in the forest on the other side. I guess it's a popular day trip.
Saturday I did the hike to Medano Lake. Eight miles with 2160 feet of gain. Great hike, but the grass on the sides was wet from the rain over night. My shoes were soaked by the time I finished. Relive video to the hike: Relive 'Medano Lake Hike'
With all the traffic I saw going up yesterday I expected the camp sites up stream to be full. Nope, not a single one had campers this morning when I went over the pass to I-25. There were also zero campers in the forest on the other side. I guess it's a popular day trip.
Saturday I did the hike to Medano Lake. Eight miles with 2160 feet of gain. Great hike, but the grass on the sides was wet from the rain over night. My shoes were soaked by the time I finished. Relive video to the hike: Relive 'Medano Lake Hike'
alia176
SILVER Star
Nice trip report Jon.
Great pics and report! Looks like a beautiful spot. PM sent about your awning.
I saw lots of similarly confused folks driving AWD cute utes (Subarus, Nissans, Kias, Hyundais, etc.) in places they had no business being the past 5 days. One in particular was a youngish hippie girl driving a hybrid Ford Escape on the trail up to Clear Lake from South Mineral Creek, west of Silverton. It's actually a pretty tame road but she was clearly shaken. She was descending as I was leading a group of 16 100-series up the road. I asked her to pull to the edge of the road so we had enough room for our behemoths to get by and she said "I'm kind of scared". So I helped guide her to get us enough room to pass. I could not believe the cojones of some people with their cute utes (mostly looked like rentals too) going up in to Yankee Boy and Governor's basin and the roads were pretty rough after a bunch of mud/rock slides along every drainage we passed.
Dumpolina
SILVER Star
.. just a short drive though so I'll get up there soon
Great pics. I have never been there. That area is now on my to do list.
