8/28/2021 Day 1: Saturday: It Begins
Updated: Sep 22, 2021
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Journal: Drove from Denver (Bluffs at Highlands Ranch) to Great Sand Dunes National Park area. It’s actually a wildlife preserve just outside of the great sand dunes. Beautiful area and… free.
Went on a short 1 mile out and back hike at Zapata falls. Beautiful, incredible waterfall. Who knew I was going to see such beauty on the first day. It was pretty impromptu. I was setting up camp, unbeknownst to me, in a handicap camp spot. A “helper” of the site host saw me and just wanted to come by and friendly point that out. He was quite nice and very talkative. Seems like he’s been out here for quite awhile. I think the whole summer pretty much. We discussed, at great length, the valley we’re currently in and the rain / water flow from the east and west, of the divide and the paths they take to their destination. Come to find out, the divide is literally a divide. Ha. The rainfall in this area has been abnormally bountiful and the sand dunes themselves have stepped forward to prove thus as they glow green from the lush grasses and bush they have turned to sprout.
For R2A YT, thumbnail could be something about, “What’s in the box?!”. The whole curious cat and such.
On the drive down I thought of enlightened topic to prose on YT but now, it evades me. I’ll ponder on it and hopefully can remember.
I also dropped the bike. Ha. First day on the road and decided to drop the bike. Made it up and back down a sketch dirt / rock road and I happened to drop the bike on pavement as I was coming to a stop to check my gear on the back. Thing is, the gear had slidden off to the side, including my water reservoir, and threw the weight of the bike off. As I was coming to a stop, I was turning right to better align the kick stand. Low and behold, a slow turn to the right was not the thing to do. Ha.
