Colorado boasts no less than four National Parks. I visited the magnificent Rocky Mountains NP on my last trip (see http://christalkstravel.blogspot.com/2009/06/rocky-mountain-national-park.html ) and this trip I got to see the other three. First up was the newest US Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park. Here at over 8,000 feet in the Rockies, a curious juxtaposition occurs: winds have piled up desert sands into dunes 750 feet high against snow-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains. And they are bounded by rushing ice-cold mountain melt-water torrents. Bordering the park is the Zapata Ranch, and I had lunch at this idyllic dude ranch of over 100,000 acres – that raises cattle, buffalo and wannabe cowboys and girls.
Nothing prepares you for when the earth gives way to a 2,700 foot deep chasm that is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Ranger Kevin Sweeney introduced me to this almighty half-mile deep gash in the landscape where the canyon walls are as little as 40 feet wide and the turbulent Gunnison River sounds like a murmur. The final National Park, Mesa Verde, is covered in a following section.
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