Great Sand Dunes National Park - Who Knew?

Maps of Colorado and Utah are splattered with the green shades representing National Parks, Forests, and Recreation Areas. Reviewing the paths one could take between Kalamazoo, Michigan and Seattle, Washington all that green is a big draw. A particular spot of National-Park-green in southern Colorado caught my eye. The tiny script read "Great Sand Dunes National Park". I had never heard of it. A good enough reason to go in my opinion.

These dunes in Alamosa, Colorado are the largest in North America. 750 feet tall! Found at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains the dunes maintain their large size through recycling. Every year winds blow sand off into the mountains. Each spring as snow and ice melt the sand is given an express trip back to the base of the dunes. Two creeks run along either side of the enormous sand piles thus a constant supply of material is available for the wind to throw back in.

Woo! Look at all this recycling!

I was really hoping to be able to go dune sledding or dune boarding during our visit. Unfortunately because my mom and I were visiting on a Sunday during the off season there was no place to get gear. I didn't even have a cardboard box I could use! It was a shame.

Regardless! The dunes were incredible! We walked out onto them and hiked a while on the tallest. There is a bit of a knack to dune walking. The windward side of the dune about a foot or two from the edge seems to have the hardest packed sand.

A beautiful day at the park

Packed sand would sometimes form designs 

A hiker at the top for scale

We spent about an hour exploring the alien landscape. We could feel the altitude of the Rockies in our heavy breathing but it was the wind picking up that drove us off. Strong winds on a dune is like a sand blaster to the face. Back at the car all of my head mucuses were working overtime to clear the sand from where it didn't belong (attractive right?). I could still shake some sand out of my hair that evening. 

Until next time!

What lies between Michigan and Colorado?

The Saint Louis Arch (and the rest of Saint Louis)

Kansas

A Russell Stover Factory!

More Kansas...

Some tumbleweeds

And now you know!

Cranes, Cranes, Cranes

The machinery? No, the bird of course!

On October 11 my housemates and I journeyed to Baker Sanctuary, an hour or so from Kalamazoo. There we sat and watched the sky for over an hour as the sun drew closer to the horizon. Why? To see the sandhill cranes fly in to roost.

Bernard W. Baker Sanctuary is an 898 acre piece of property owned by the Michigan Audubon Society dedicated to the protection of sandhill cranes. It was the first sanctuary in the country created for a crane species. The sanctuary every year hosts several breeding pairs in the spring and thousands in the fall as they journey southward.

Towards sunset Abigail, Chelsey, and I began to hear a great ruckus from beyond a hill to our right. Cranes were creating a cacophany of sound but we couldn't see them yet. For several minutes we waited as the sound grew closer. Finally, hundreds of cranes appeared over the hill. The arrivals honked at the cranes already in the marsh while those previously settled honked back saying it was safe. In groups of ten and twenty the prehistoric looking birds circled around for the best place to land. as each group settled the marsh began to quiet again.

Sandhill cranes at Baker Sanctuary - Bellevue, Michigan

On October 28 Abigail, Chelsey, and I had another crane adventure as we volunteered for the annual crane count. All of Michigan was split into territories to be covered by teams or individuals to count the cranes they see roosting. The count had to take place between the 27th and the 29th in order to be relatively sure no one was counting the same birds twice.

Before dusk the three of us drove around our zone seeking foraging and nesting grounds. We found approximately 150 sandhill cranes among the harvested corn fields. Knowing how many are foraging gave us a number to expect when counting the roosts.

We parked near two marshes in the middle of our survey area to sit and wait. As before there were only a few at first but as the sun fell below the horizon over one hundred appeared flying in. With the three of us at various posts counting in the growing dark our numbers became fairly rough. After some debate and last minute estimations while becoming too dark to see we came to the number of 170 sandhill cranes in our survey area.