Sand and Rock

Every year about this time, when the mountain scenery fades from green to brown, I’m drawn to a different kind of terrain – dusty high deserts, rocky canyons, shifting sand dunes.

Fall and winter are the best times to visit these places and you’ll often have them to yourselves. Here are three of my favorites close to Colorado Springs – Paint Mines Interpretive Park, which is nearby; the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, which can be done on a long day trip, and Hovenweep National Monument, which can be part of a longer road trip that also includes Mesa Verde National Park.

• Paint Mines Interpretive Park, part of the El Paso County parks system, is unlike any other park in the region. To get there, take U.S. Highway 24 east to Calhan; drive south on Yoder Road/Calhan Highway; east on Pain Mine Road, and follow the signs. The park is named for the hoodoos and spires capped in sandstone (pictured) and “painted” with clays. It’s a small park – 750 acres with four miles of trails – but you’ll want to linger and explore the maze of rock formations.
• Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve near Mosca has the tallest dunes in North America, set dramatically against a backdrop of the Sangre de Cristos. In the summer, the dunes are crawling with visitors. In the winter, we’ve had the park all to ourselves.
• Hovenweep National Monument near Cortez and Blanding, Utah. Mysterious rock towers and petroglyphs dot the high desert here; remnants of a culture 10,000 years old.

– Deb Acord

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Tags: Colorado, hiking, outdoors

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