It began, like most hiking adventures with Scott Smith and his dog Lacy do, with an email:
Options off the top of my head include Cisneros Trail, Greenhorn, Mosca Pass or Goodwin Lakes (in the Sangres)…first three would be relatively easy early-season hikes; Goodwin longer and harder (but not as tough as Horn Lakes–more like Lakes of the Clouds). We’ll figure it out.
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One needs to appreciate what Scott means by “relatively easy” when he’s talking about hiking. Any endeavor below timber line is “easy” for Scott. He’ll tell you he’s not in hiking shape but he can motor up a 10,000-foot high trail with without much effort. Lacy, his dog, is seemingly impervious to altitude and fatigue as well. I, however, have always battled with hiking any trail over 8,000 feet. I know my stamina is going to get tested when I hit the trail with Scott, regardless of his rating system. It’s just simply a matter of degree.
This time we settled on Mosca Pass and its overlook of the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It’s a seven-mile out-and-back hike. The trailhead is situated at 9,600 feet and the Dunes overlook is at 10,800 feet, more or less. Scott’s handicapping of the hike was close, but I wouldn’t say it was spot on. It wasn’t a grueling trek, but it wasn’t a stroll in the park, either, for my part, anyway.
That it was a beautiful hike is indisputable. Like most of southern Colorado, the Mosca Pass has benefitted from a cool, wet summer. The overcast skies that day cast a soft light over the landscape giving it a lush, cool, pre-drought, northern California kind of feel, giving way to a more desolate, steppe-type terrain near the top of the trail.
The view of the dunes was the highlight of our day, or mine at least. “Low” clouds obscured our view of anything over 12,000 feet, including the Blanca Massif. Scott was a little disappointed he couldn’t show off that vista, but I was pretty impressed with our nearly birds-eye view of the Great Sand Dunes, especially since I know how big some of those piles of sand are, having marched up a few them.
After lunch, the weather threatened to turn, so Scott suggested we three begin to make our way down the trail. True to form, I dealt with a headache/nausea bout after lunch, but managed to keep things in check after a 15-minute or so rest. But that episode aside, it was uneventful descent. We didn’t see any elk or moose or bear.
I’m always left slack-jawed by southern Colorado’s natural beauty. I’m glad Scott’s been around, and patient enough, to share some of it with me.
