SE COLORADO-WHITE MOUNTAIN TRADING POST, FORT GARLAND, GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL PARK

We continue west and breakfast in Fort Garland.  We visit the White Mountain Trading Post and spend the morning going through the reconstructed frontier town all staffed by the Robertson family.  We descend into a sub-terrain hogan and hear about how they were made.

We spend the afternoon going through Fort Garland (1858-1883) which was built to protect the settlers mostly Hispanos, coming up from the south.  Christopher 'Kit' Carson was commander from 1866 to 1867.

We visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park, the tallest dunes in North America (700').  This 600 acre park rises from the San Luis Valley.  We take off our shoes and hike out onto them.  When we return to the truck, the dogs are thirsty and exhausted.  We ascend the side of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains to a primitive campsite in the Rio Grande National Forest.

White Trading Post, Fort Garland, Colorado_Buffalo Joe

Mitch Entering a Traditional Navajo Hogan

There he goes.

Mitch inside the Hogan.

Columbine at the entrance to Fort Garland

Christopher 'Kit' Carson, 1868

Fort Garland Military Outpost_1858 to 1883

Little Bear Peak, Blanca Peak, Lindsey Mountain_View from Fort Garland, Colorado

Blanca Peak,_View from Fort Garland, Colorado

View on the way to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, NE of Alamosa, CO

Great Sand Dunes_Tallest Dunes in North America (700')

Mitch playing at the dunes.

Sunset at Zapata Falls, San Luis Valley of Colorado