Thoughts and experiences camping at Great Sand Dunes National Park in the summer?
5h 46m ago by lemmy.blahaj.zone/u/TwiddleTwaddle in camping@sh.itjust.works
My partner and I are planning a road trip up from the swampy southern US to CO in early August, and are considering camping out at Great Sand Dunes National Park for a night or two.
Anyone have experience camping out at GSDNP in mid-late summer? I've read online that that sand temperatures can burn your feet during the day, mosquitoes will eat you up, and the wind will fill your tent with sand. We're wanting to experience something very different from the camping opportunities more local to us, but not sure if these are challenges we can overcome with the right gear/planning, if they're overblown compared to what we're used to (dry heat vs 100% humidity and mosquitoes being a constant presence our entire lives), or if we would just end up miserable and potentially cut the trip short.
Is a canopy tent a good idea for shade, or just a wind sail that we won't be able to secure well enough to loose sand? Similarly would you bring special tent stakes for sand? Where we typically camp in wooded areas, there's generally not enough wind to even need tent stakes.
We would want to do some hiking, but aren't equipped well enough for real backpacking. We'd be tent camping out of the car, with supplies enough for a week long road trip already.
We'll need to get camping permits very soon if we do stay there, so I'm hoping to gather some insight from other's experiences to make an informed decision now.
Pinion Flats car camping area has sandy soil but it's not like the open Dunes. You'll probably be able to get stakes into ground just fine, and there some scrubby pine trees for wind break.
When planning your hikes, pay attention to what roads are 4WD/high clearance. That's a requirement, not a suggestion. Don't think a FWD SUV will be ok just because it has higher clearance than a sedan.
IMO, Dunes is great for a day, I would spend a longer stretch of time at Mesa Verde.
We would love to spend time at Mesa Verde, and maybe a shorter stop at Great Sand Dunes makes sense for the harsh conditions.
We had considered ending the trip with a show at Red Rocks before we head back because my partner hasn't been there before. If we ended up trying to do both national parks and back up to Denver area, it may end up being too crowded of an itenerary with more driving than we had hoped.
We originally hadn't really considered Mesa Verde because it's kindof out of the way (coming from the southeast), but we do love visiting world heritage/cultural sites. Mesa Verde is certainly impressive enough to merit a second look though.
If you're car camping for a whole week, you can fit in both the Dunes and Mesa Verde.
Consider driving up Pike's Peak on your way down to the Dunes if you don't plan any other tall mountains into your trip this time. Unless you are exceptionally fit, I wouldn't try hiking a 12k+ ft mountain (I say as a flatlander who moved to CO for a while. The thinner atmosphere can really hit hard). And read up on how to drive down a mountain without boiling your brakes if you don't already know.
Is this whole plan a dumb idea? We worry that a local, knowing the conditions out there, would scoff at the idea or laugh seeing us set up camp clearly ill-prepared or something