Memorial Day weekend will be a great trip for the club. We have done versions of this trip before, and it's always a great time.

We will be heading South down to Medano Pass for the holiday weekend. This is the off road entrance to get into the Great Sand Dunes National Park (for free!) to see the impressive dunes. While we can't off road on the dunes themselves, we can get up close to them and hopefully enjoy time in the river just in front of them and walk up them. Also, the Medano Pass trail offers great scenery and many stream crossings down to the dunes. 

Friday night, May 23rd, we will plan to camp at our normal spot which is a large, dispersed camping area near the top of Medano Pass along Forest Road 559. The camping group will plan to leave the campsite at 8:30 a.m. to head into the park.

If you do not want to camp Friday night and would rather drive down early Saturday morning, you can meet us at the intersection of State Highway 69 and Forest Road 559 at 9 a.m. to meet one of our directors. You can then follow them up to Medano Pass and then down into the park.

There is a small parking area next to the stream and one of the large dunes that is fun to enjoy. Typically the water is very shallow and on a sand bed that makes it great for kids to play. If you want to try to hike up the dune you are welcome to. PLEASE NOTE: This a very popular area for holiday weekends so there is no guarantee that there will be enough parking in the small lot for everyone when we get there. So, you need to be prepared to have a backup plan in case we don't all fit. Another option would be to head South to the Great Sand Dunes parking area to hike out onto the sand or go to the visitor center.

Also note that if you travel past the main entrance to the park, you will need to pay the required entrance fee to get back into the park and back to the campsite.

We will then travel back up the trail to return to our campsite for the evening.

On Sunday, we plan to explore some trails on the East side of Highway 69 to West Cisneros and Pole Creek. After that we'll head back to camp near Medano Pass. 

Trail Leaders: Kirk, Emilio and Glenn.