Agile Trekker: Wellington Ditch Trail, Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/19/2024	3.9 miles	2 hours 32 minutes	262'	1.9 mph	344.2 miles

Parking:

Ampitheater parking lot
Note this is a national park, so a fee or pass is required: Fees & Passes - Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Map:

Directions: From the Amphitheater, turn right on the road towards the campground. At the campground loop turn right and find the Wellington Ditch Trailhead. At the intersection with the Mosca Pass trail turn right. Cross the road and stop by the visitor center. From the back door of the visitor center take the path towards the dunes (not the nature trail). Go through the Dunes Picnic Area and then the Dunes parking lot and then into the creek. Turn right and walk through the creek. Turn right to hit the Dunes Access through Campground trail and return to the amphitheater parking lot.

Our next stop on our trip was Great Sand Dunes National Park. We drove to the park in the morning. The sand on the dunes is supposed to get hot in the afternoon, so we decided to leave dune climbing until tomorrow. We started out with a stop at the visitor center, and then a short hike. There are very few hiking trails in the park. There was one longer one with a bunch of elevation gain, but I would have wanted to have started it earlier in the day if we did it (because afternoon thunderstorms are so common here). Most people just head to the creek and the dunes.

We did a shorter hike, and then off to the creek.

Our trip timing worked out well, as its one of the months that Medano Creek is flowing. People get very excited about it. I didn't know what to expect. The creek was fun :) The water is extremely shallow - often not even ankle deep, but sometimes mid-calf. People sit out in chairs in the creek. They bring their dogs and play fetch in the creek. One guy tried surfing in the creek. And they walk in the creek, which is what we did. It gave me a child-like joy. There are 30 square miles of dunes! It is immense. If you stop by the visitor center, they have binoculars out back where you can look out at all of the little dots of people climbing the dunes.

We were unable to get campground reservations to camp in the national park (reminder - book your campsites early!), so we ended up camping 40 minutes away. There appear to be only 3 places in the town of Hooper. A gas station, a pot store, and a hot springs pool. There was camping at the pool. The Greenhouse | Sand Dunes Rec (sanddunespool.com) The pool is actually a collection of pools fed by hot springs. The pool accessible to kids was crazy loud and busy. We went into the adult only (21+) collection of pools, where you can drink booze while soaking. Tara was missing a tent pole for her tent, so she slept in our rental car. Luckily it was a pretty big car. Despite it being only May, I was actually warm enough in my tent (with my -20 degree bag of course!).

Sand dunes from far away

Getting closer.

We ended up visiting Zapata Falls the next day, after noticing this sign

The dunes are immense....

We hiked the Wellington Ditch Trail, which starts in the campground.

Mosca Pass is the longer trail which gains a lot of altitude.
It was too late in the day to consider it.
We headed towards the nature trail and the visitor center.