Details Sand Dunes Packtrip

Bear Basin Pack Trips LLC
www.bearbasinpacktrip.com
info@bearbasinpacktrip.com

FIVE DAY PACK TRIP – GREAT SAND DUNES ADVENTURE
An incredible journey over the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range into the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
For fit,experienced or confident riders.

DESCRIPTION

“A memorable wilderness journey through some of the most remote and spectacular mountains in North America…with comfortable camps, world class guides and Colorado’s best mountain trained horses!”

Far from the crowded trials and backpacking hoards, this five-day ultimate horseback vacation takes you through forgotten valleys of Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. We designed these trips many years ago for the horse enthusiast and high country lover who want to disappear completely into a
lost mountain world.

This adventure is for fit, experienced or confident riders only. We cross 12,000-ft high passes, riding up to six or seven hours almost every day.  Some traveling is along rough, unmaintained trails that may require moving rockslides or chopping a fallen tree blocking passage. We sometimes cross between valleys over old herder’s tracks above timberline where it is necessary to dismount and lead our horses over rugged terrain.

The Sand Dunes Ultimate route begins at Day 1 at Music Pass and then over the top of the range into the wilds of the Sand Creek drainage Day 2. We work our way down Sand Creek to a little known route at the base to join a trail heading to the Sand Dunes. We’ll camp close to the Sand Dunes and enjoy a day riding on sand mountains. Then we exit out Madano Pass to our trail head once again on the eastern side of the Sangres. The group works as a team. Everyone participates in saddling, care of horses and in setting-up/breaking-down camp. The staff cook, clean up, and pack horses. This is an expedition, lightweight and mobile, utilizing all hands towards the ultimate goal of reaching the next pass, or catching sight of the moving forest of elk. Doing it simply. Responding to the call.

ITINERARY

DAY 1: We meet in Colorado Springs or at Bear Basin Ranch and travel to the trailhead. This route takes you from the eastern plains below Pikes Peak, traveling back into western history up Hardscrabble Pass through the Wet Mountains, across the Wet Mountain Valley, to the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. These locations are aptly named. Hardscrabble is just that — a narrow, steep, twisting canyon found and used by the white man for less than, maybe, 200 years. Over 12 feet of snow fell on much of the Wet Mountains this winter, and rain, hail, and snow can find riders in the Wet Mountains every summer. You will get the opportunity to learn how the Sangre de Cristo range gets its name (in English, the “Blood of Christ”) if you see the morning sun strike the mountains and, for just a few moments, the snow-covered peaks turn the pink of snow brushed with blood. If you need to buy a fishing license, remember to ask your guide to stop before we pass through the town of Westcliffe. You will arrive at the trailhead mid-morning, where we begin with a detailed lesson on riding, saddling and care of your mount, then we pack up and head out. Quiet riders will discover the joys of meandering through age-old aspen, pine, and spruce to round a blind corner and discover mule deer, a porcupine, a wild turkey, cottontail rabbits, or maybe a snowshoe hare. We will ride about four hours up and over Music Pass. Here you may hear strange whistling sounds warning others we’re coming — we’re the invaders here. If you look closely, you may see this whistler — a rotund, waddling funny-looking fellow known as a yellow-bellied or mountain marmot. He’s a friendly fellow who lives in the rocks, subsists entirely on the greens of summer, and then hibernates through the harsh winter. That’s “marmot,” not “varmint.”) It’s an incredible first day of riding over a 12,500′ pass to our first glimpse of the vastness of the San Luis Valley framed by each peak and ridgeline descending sharply below us. We set up tents, picket horses, and soon the scents of a mouth-watering feast mingled with woodsmoke entice us to gather round the fire for drinks and dinner.

DAY 2: After a delectable breakfast with a bracing cup of cowboy coffee, we saddle up, load the packhorses, and visit the spectacular Upper Sand Lake before descending down Sand Creek to our beautiful meadow camp above the Little Sand intersection. We hope to see the larger cousins of the mule deer we spotted earlier. Unlike mul