I made a wonderful plan of our memorial weekend, since its going to be really hot after few months, I decided to visit Arizona before summer hits. I came across a beautiful photo of Kelso Dunes, which is dog friendly( woohoo!) so I dropped a pin here for our first stop before AZ.
the hike to the top of the dunes is around 2.7 miles round trip, sounds short but consider you are walking on the sand, its still some workout there especially when you are walking uphills.
we got there at 5pm, which I think its a perfect timing to visit, I've read some posts on the internet, people do complain about the heat, its desert and obviously you will not have any shade here.
there is no actual trail to walk on, but dunes are right in front of you, no matter you are following people's footprints or the dunes, you will eventually get to the "summit".
we got there at 5pm, which I think its a perfect timing to visit, I've read some posts on the internet, people do complain about the heat, its desert and obviously you will not have any shade here.
there is no actual trail to walk on, but dunes are right in front of you, no matter you are following people's footprints or the dunes, you will eventually get to the "summit".
after the first mile, It became a tough ascent due to the soft sand.
the view is really rewarding after we reach the ridge line of the dunes
there is a short walk to the top of the dunes, Actaeas managed it pretty well.
you can see the expanse of the dunes snaking down to the desert from here
Isn't this view gorgeous?
I finally bought a hydration backpack and a pair of real hiking shoes, I tend to be really weak at making my commitments to anything (like I rather pay day passes instead of a monthly card for gym ), even if we've been hiking for years, I thought we don't really go on difficult hikes so I did not think I will actually need to get gears until now, wish I made this decision earlier, actual hiking gears made this trip so pleasant.
when we got to the top its a shame there were already a couple sitting right at the tip, we kindly asked them to let us take one photo, but the rest of the time we had to sit at the other end.
we stayed at the top until sunset, the sand were so perfect that I did not even want to walk over there to destroy the surface.
after we can't see the sun no more, instead of walking on the ridge back, I decided to directly slide down the slope, the sand was so deep and soft, I could barely feel anything even it went into my boots, sliding down like that was so much fun that i wish I had a piece of cardboard to sit on.
after we did this fun crazy move, people after us followed up :)
It got almost dark when the time I realized I lost my cell phone, I did not dare to walk back to find it because it will be no fun to get lost in dark with Actaeas in the desert... we managed to walked back to trailhead with no light( was planing to use my phone as a flash light... oh well) and thank god my car has built in navigation, I made a hard decision to drive back to LA because that's the only address I remembered. I had all my motel confirmations and stuffs on cloud, thought about to find a near by Fedex center so I will have access to the internet, but its 10pm and we were at the middle of nowhere, I was also too scared to travel alone without a phone.
its a shame I ended our whole Arizona plan like this, I also hate myself being so weak by how much I relied on my phone, I kept thinking about what will be a better decision to make instead of calling it off, if this ever happen to us again(hope not), probability I will sleep in the car and go back to find my phone in the next mornin.
I lost tons of photos and videos I took, but I am glad me and Actaeas are safe.
what a Memorial weekend(2) - 100 Giants/Remington Hot Spring>>
