Not really the "dunes" themselves, but the Medona Pass Trail. The trail is closed and there is no sign of when it will reopen. This is the trail in Colorado that goes over the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and drops you into the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The park was still open, but the 4wheel trail is closed. Here is the story.

We arrived on the north/east side of Medona Pass on Thursday, June 10th at about 3:00 pm. We passed a couple of campsites, but continued down towards the dunes seeking a better one, and then we came to a forest ranger in a pickup. He told us the pass was being closed because there was a wild fire nearby. They were going to let it burn naturally, being it was ignited by lighting. Totally bummed, as we were to not be able to camp on the pass trail, they offered us a free stay at a group campground by the dunes (i.e. a gypsy camp). I do not like campgrounds, but we came to play in the sand and creek…so as lame as the “camp” part was, we stayed. (Not to offend those that like camp"grounds", but it ain't my style.)

Here is a picture of the fire. This is from on top of the dunes looking north-east directly up the canyon of Medona Pass trail. You can see my rig in the right side of the photo by the fire-services truck



So we camped Thursday night at the group campground. The runner was parked on ASPHALT at the campsite??!!?? What!! We had to share the site with two other guys that got booted from the pass also. Misery loves company, I guess…we drank by the fire with our new friends and complained about having to be there with each other! HA! Luckily they were pretty alright folks.

Friday night was hell, with steady 20 mph winds and gusts to 45. Saturday we went back to see if the rain had put out the fire and opened the pass for our drive home. The ranger said the wind made the fire go wild and it is burning up the canyon even more strongly now.

So, I got barely any wheeling in, crappy camping, and wind. We still had a one great day at the dunes on Friday


So if you made it through my camping story, here is the moral of this thread.

THE RANGER SAID MEDANO PASS WILL LIKELY BE CLOSED FOR “QUITE A WHILE” AS THEY LET THE FIRE BURN OUT NATURALLY AND THEN CLEAN UP.

Post that info on every forum you know…There were a lot of folks that got turned around by closed gates on Fri and Sat while I was there. Get the word out…MEDONA IS CLOSED.

I echo your sentiments on camping like that-I go to nature for nature not to be around everyone else like a condo complex in the outdoors.

Thanks for letting us know about the closure of Medano. That's really the only route I ever take over there to the Dunes. Too bad we could not ship the rain from up here to down there. Has done nothing but rain here since Friday PM.

Hope you did not have hail damage upon your return. This was Friday 4pm

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