After leaving Black Canyon of the Gunnison two days early, and after spending a night at a hotel, we still needed a place to stay on Sunday night, before we could get into our reserved campsite in Great Sand Dunes. We decided we would drive straight to the park, and see if by chance we could get into our site there a day early. Unfortunately, we couldn’t, and so began the quest for lodging for the night.
Fortunately, it was early afternoon, and the campground host at the park recommended we go to the San Luis Valley state park campground, about a 20 minute drive from Great Sand Dunes. She said they would probably have a opening there and we could come back to the park and check into our site the next day.
We took her advice and arrived at the state park which would be our home for the night. At the entrance was a sign that stated you had to have a Colorado State Wildlife Agency permit to be on the premises. We certainly didn’t have such a permit, and since the place looked abandoned, we continued on into the campground anyway to check it out.
What we saw didn’t impress. It appears the state has abandoned this campground as lying before us in all directions were empty and dusty campsites with little sign of life to be found. Little doesn’t mean no sign of life, for lo and behold, there was a camping trailer parked in one of the sites with a “Campground Host” sign displayed out front. I walked up to the trailer and knocked on the door and I was greeted by an elderly gentleman who gave me a blank stare. “Are you the campground host?” I asked. That was kind of a dumb question, who else would it be? “Uh huh,” was his reply. I think he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. “Do I need a permit to stay the night here?” Dumb question number 2, the sign at the entrance already told me that. “Yep, try SWA,” he cryptically answered me. “Can I google that and get a permit?” No response. I’m not sure the man knows what google is to be honest with you, as he just looked at me with a funny expression on his face. After a few uncomfortable seconds, I said thank you and turned to go back to the car.
I tried without much success to explain my strange interaction with the host to Beth. We decided to drive back to the entrance and read the sign again with the hopes of gathering more information on obtaining the required permit to stake our claim to a spot in this ghost town campground. After re-reading the sign, we realized that the SWA to which the host was referring was the Colorado State Wildlife Agency. Great, we now knew where to look online for directions on obtaining the overnight permit.
Over the course of the next hour, and with increasing frustration, I weaved my way around the Colorado SWA website in a futile effort to purchase our permit. Complicating matters was the fact that every minute or so our cell service was cutting out. Just when I thought I had what we needed, we would lose service and I would have to drive to a different part of the campground to reconnect to the website. In retrospect, I am not sure the meager amenities the campground offered was worth all the effort. Perhaps we should have just slept in the car someplace.
At long last, I was finally successful in purchasing our overnight permit, and we headed with renewed confidence to find just the perfect spot to pitch our tent. With plenty of sites to choose from, it didn’t take us long to locate one. The site was level, it was about 50 yards from what appeared to be a vault toilet, no water anywhere, and believe it or not, there was an electric hook up on site. Miracles never cease.
In short order, we set up our trusty old Coleman tent, and in no time, the frustration and struggles of the past couple of hours melted away. We had a place to sleep for the night. Sure, it wasn’t pretty, and it looked like someplace that you might see on a “Twilight Zone” episode where the couple is trapped and can’t get out, but hey, it had a vault toilet and an electric hook up, what more could you ask for? Yea, water.
It turned out to be a very nice and comfortable evening. We had a good supper, and just relaxed in our camping chairs, appreciating the view of beautiful mountains all around. We could even see the giant sand dunes of the park, looking more like mountain foothills than sand dunes from our perspective.
We slept well, for about 3 hours. Shortly after midnight, a strong storm moved through the area, bringing very heavy rain and strong winds. We really thought the tent was going to be blown over, it was that intense. For several hours the storm raged on. The sounds of the rain hitting the tent roof, and the sounds of the tent walls flapping in the gusts, were not conducive to sleeping. I kept praying that our tent would withstand the storm. Thank God, it did.
Around 5:00 a.m., the storm subsided and we were able to get another hour of sleep before awakening to begin a new day. The sun had reappeared, the wind had stopped and it was a beautiful morning. We had made it through a very restless night.
Since we were only 20 minutes from the campground in the park, and since check-in wasn’t until noon, we had time to let the sun dry our tent while we began the process of packing up everything else. At one point, I happened to look down and I noticed there were red spots all over my legs. Lots and lots of them. Apparently, at some point since arriving at the lovely campground, I had been attacked by dozens of flies, chiggers, mosquitoes, or some other insect that feasted on me and left me with literally dozens of bite marks on my legs. I counted 47 bites on the front part of my left leg alone, and Beth said there were just as many on the back of both legs. Fortunately they didn’t itch, much, and I am happy to say that the marks eventually cleared up, but it was another reminder of what a lovely place this campground was.
In the end, at least we had a place to stay for the night, and we were able to get out without being held captive by a crazed campground host. Our tent didn’t blow away, and we survived one of the more challenging nights of our escapade. When we pulled out, we didn’t look back.