Over the pass and around the dunes - southwest Colorado - Brief Article

A visit to Kit Carson's old haunts, a chance to spot whooping cranes, and the incongruous sight of vast sand dunes tucked against the Sangre de Cristo Range highlight a fine late-winter getaway in southwest Colorado.

Start in Walsenburg and drive west over La Veta Pass. The road ascends Mt. Maestas's broad shoulders and overlooks the twin Spanish Peaks, volcanic anomalies in the sedimentary Rockies. Then it drops into the San Luis Valley, 125 miles long and 50 miles wide, the state's largest basin.

At the foot of the pass is Fort Garland, a former outpost that helped win the West. Its Union soldiers defeated Confederate troops at New Mexico's Glorieta Pass before the fort became a military Siberia. Kit Carson commanded here for a year. Today the state historical society fills the rooms with splendid pioneer, military, Native American, and Latino artifacts.

Continue west to Alamosa, Monte Vista, and the Alamosa/Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Divided into two spectacular sites, the refuge teems each spring and fall with migrating birds, most famously the stately sandhill cranes celebrated at the annual Monte Vista Crane Festival (March 10-12). Look for the handful of ghostly whooping cranes that travel with the flock.

Northeast of Alamosa lies the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, which looks as if 39 square miles of the Sahara Desert decided to vacation in Colorado. The dunes are so steep--as high as 750 feet--that you may find skiers and snowboarders making tracks in the sand.

These dunes, already the highest in North America, may soon grow in stature. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and others have pushed for the Great Sand Dunes to be elevated to national park status.

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COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group