We started our journey on a frigid Friday evening. The I-25 South was filled with Friday afternoon rush hour traffic until it branched off onto CO 160 West. From there, it we only shared the road with truckers. Even though it was dark, the silhouettes of mountains could be seen and felt as the wind blew through the valleys. We checked in to Comfort Inn after passing through the heart of downtown Alamosa. The first meal of the trip was at San Luis Valley Brewing Company. Our long drive and delayed dinner made the pub food taste delicious. The fish and chips was fresh and hot, and the fries nice and crunchy. San Luis’ beer was the kind you bought by the pitcher. We especially enjoyed their Valle Caliente beer due to its unique flavoring of green chiles unique to the region.
The next day we woke up around 8 am to get ahead of any tourists also headed to the sand dunes. Luckily, not many people joined us at that hour and we were able to make our way into a relatively quiet park. The snow from the previous days crested the peaks of Blanca Peak and the Sangre de Cristos range, leaving gorgeous mountains every which way we looked. Luckily the snow had not dusted the sand dunes, leaving them free for trekking. The cold weather (30 deg F) did leave a little crunch for easy walking. We decided to take on a relatively easy hike to the highest dune due instead of taking on the icy conditions at higher elevation trails. Next time, we will take on Zapata Falls.
We did find the hiking a tad cumbersome, as one would imagine desert sand dunes to be. The views and the relative ease of hiking the cold sand was very fun. The more you walked into the desert, the more it seemed to swallow you up until you felt as if you could disappear. The higher you got, the larger you realized the size of the Great Sand Dune area was. It took us about two hours to get to the highest points of the dunes, and the view was totally worth it!
As if sensing our small feat, the wind started to pick up, throwing sand about and making being at the top less bearable. Additionally, quite a few more people were beginning to make their way up the dunes. Our timing had been impeccable! The way down the dunes was much easier than the way up. We quickly slid and ran down the sides of the dunes with ease. When we visit again, sand boarding or sledding will be a must. When we headed back down, we decided the next stop was going to be some beer (amclassic CO post-hike tradition).
The brewery we stopped at was right next door to the San Luis Valley Brewing Company (founded by ex-employees of the San Luis Valley Brewing Company). The place was called Square Peg Brewerks, and by far the beer was the best we had on our trip. A highlight was the Perky Porter, which had the fullness and flavor of a coffee stout without being too filling. At Square Peg we were also treated to a bit of local flavor. We met a local rancher who introduced us to some of the history of the area, notably its secessionist leanings and strong disdain for yuppie Denverites. His booming voice spoke of ranching life and boyhood travels up and down the mountain ranges in the region. He gave us a list of delicious breweries to try for when we visited again. We also met a trucker, who regaled us with tales of trucker life (some of which I can’t recount here do to the raunchiness). The trucker tried to recruit us to join his team, but we kindly told him we were already pursuing other careers. Besides the dunes, this was the highlight of the trip because we learned a little bit more about the region than we otherwise would have through the internet. We enjoyed dinner from at Calvillo’s, with the highlight being the sopapilla’s.
Our last stop before we left on Sunday was Milagros Coffee shop, whose proceeds go to helping the poor and homeless in the San Luis Valley area. We enjoy both the coffee and the breakfast sandwiches. We learned the issues the poor and homeless faced in the region, an area which hasn’t benefitted from the boom in Colorado’s population like Denver and Colorado Springs. Alamosa proved to be much more than Great Sand Dunes National Park. We found the people warm and inviting, the food and beer enjoyable. We plan on coming back, and we hope reading about our trip motivates you to take a visit to Alamosa as well.
