Sand dunes national Park ? Why am I heading for sand dunes national Park ?

The Constitution guarantees the right to click a pic.

I camped for two nights at what used to be a Colorado state Park. But is now closed and in the process of becoming a State Wildlife Area, an SWA.

Leaving Silverton, I stopped in Durango at the bottom of the mountains and thought I would drop in at the Durango and Silverton train Depot in downtown Durango to take a few pictures of the train in its natural environment. But that didn't work out very well.

First of all, at least where I was, there's a very high fence around the railroad yard so that you can't get anywhere near the trains. So the few pictures I took were poking my camera through the fence at the passenger cars sitting on sidings, and there wasn't an engine in sight. So I only took a couple of pictures before I gave up and headed down the road.

Speaking of heading down the road. I was going to go to Creede Colorado, and since the Rio Grande River starts high in the mountains somewhere in the general area of Creede, I thought that would make an excellent two-day trip. But on the way there, I got to thinking about the lousy weather forecast up in the mountains and decided I would save the Creede trip, and the possibility of me being the 1000th person to discover the headwaters of the Rio Grande for another time. So instead of heading up into the mountains, I stayed in the San Luis Valley and went to the Sand Dunes National Park.

You may wonder why I went to the Dunes considering I was there last summer. You probably don't remember, but I certainly do, that the Mosquitoes in the area at that time were horrendous. I had to hearken back to my days of paddling my old Grumman aluminum canoe in Everglades National Park in Florida to recall a Mosquito infestation that would equal what was going on at Sand Dunes National Park. So I didn't stay long and spent most of the time hidden inside the little Bronco camper coming out only to soak my clothes in Deet. So I figured I would give it another chance and lucky me there hasn't been a Mosquito in sight. So I'll hang around here for a couple of nights and head back to Denver this weekend.

                               theboondork    

This T-shirt I saw in Silverton reminded me of my last visit to the Sand Dunes National Park.

This used to be San Luis Lake state Park, and I used to go there when it was a state Park. So this is what it looks like when a state Park closes.

10 or 15 years ago I was talking to the Ranger here at the state Park and he told me they were going to drain the Lake because it was full of Carp and nobody wanted to fish there anymore. But they were going to restock it and fill the lake back up again. Not necessarily in that order.

I guess he was half right. They did drain the lake and killed all the carp. And mostly filled it back up again. Then somewhere along the line the state decided to abandon it as a state Park. The Ducks and Geese love it because with the lake only half full the water is real shallow.

One thing led to another and somehow the State Wildlife Office ended up with it and turned it into a wildlife area for hunting,  birdwatching, nesting areas and things like that. But State Wildlife doesn't care about the park buildings, the picnic tables, or the campground, they just care about the Wildlife.

So now a lot of the infrastructure is falling down. You can camp at the campground for free including electricity if you have a Colorado fishing or a hunting license. Which I always have since the Colorado geezer license is only 10 bucks a year, so whenever I'm in the area I always stop in and take advantage of the bargain. I don't know how long it will last before some government pencil pusher figures out that the Colorado citizens that own the land are using it for free and puts a stop to that before the idea catches on.