Great Sand Dunes

Great Sand Dunes

After leaving Taos, New Mexico, I felt a lightness that’s a little hard to put into words. I had just come off the lowest point in my trip—concerned about my engine noise, extremely limited on repair options and completely blindsided by how much I disliked Taos. But, even though I had zero clue how long my van would continue running, I felt in my bones that it was time to leave. So I fired up the engine, cranked up the music and pointed the van north, to Colorado. As soon as I left I felt as if a massive weight had been lifted and I knew I made the right decision. 

My plan was to head towards Durango, Colorado—a large enough city that would provide me with plenty of mechanics to choose from. In fact, I had already researched a few highly-rated garages, one of which was already plugged into my GPS as my target destination. Not long into the drive, however, I realized that my route would lead me past a national park that I had never visited before. Oh, the temptation! 

Part of me knew that I should push on through to Durango in order to figure out what’s going on with my van. But a larger part of me—the adventurer, the photographer, the nonchalant—couldn’t help but check out the national park since I was so close. Besides, at this point I had already thrown caution to the wind and, as you may know, once that caution’s gone it’s particularly difficult to get it back.

So I veered off the main route and headed to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

If you’ve never seen them for yourself, it’s impossible to describe how gigantic the sand dunes really are. I’ll just say, they’re enormous. And while I had no desire to hike the dunes, as many others were doing, I did bust out my camera and got some really cool photographs of the dunes and the people enjoying them. The detour was already worth it.

After photographing from one location, I began driving around the park looking for a different vantage point. Before long I came across a large, dirt parking area that looked out across the dunes and provided the exact shift in perspective I was hoping for. I parked my van near a few other vehicles and began setting up my tripod. After snapping a bunch of photos I was putting my camera gear away, preparing to continue the drive to Durango, when this adorable little puppy came sniffing over to me. Pretty soon her owner came following after her and he and I started chatting—first about the dog, then about travel, then about life. Before long a couple of his friends stopped by and joined the conversation. One thing led to the other and, before I knew it, we had a caravan of four vans, one truck and five dogs all heading down the road to camp together for the night. All because of a curious puppy.

What a swing of emotions! Hours prior I was leaving Taos, at the literal lowest point in my journey, feeling overwhelmed and deflated, and in practically no time at all came one of the highlights of my trip—camping with a handful of awesome people and their dogs, who were out enjoying life on the road just like I was. 

In the morning we said our goodbyes, as they all had plans and I had a clanking engine to figure out, but we all exchanged contact information before parting ways and I’ll be very surprised if I don’t see at least some of them on the road again. 

I not only look back on this unexpectedly lovely Great Sand Dunes detour with huge fondness due to the friends and memories I made, but I can also see how it disrupted my initial plans just enough to send me down a new, incredible path. It caused me to research local mechanics instead of sticking to my initial plan of Durango, which led me to the mechanic in Del Norte. And that simple decision helped lead to the most magical chapter of my entire trip—the San Juan Mountains. 

Stay tuned for more!

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." — John Lennon