Outsiders getting Outside: From Dallas to the Dunes

January 21, 2015 Studio Outside

Road Trip

Important to every life of a Studio Outsider is planning how to use our paid time off (PTO). Last year my wife and I, new to North Texas, decided to take advantage of our closer proximity to Colorado and take a road trip to the Rocky Mountains. Our America the Beautiful Annual Pass was expiring and we wanted to squeeze-in one more park, do some hiking, and see some scenery. A (long) day’s drive from Dallas, nestled in the south Rockies, Great Sand Dunes National Park seemed like an interesting destination to visit with beautiful scenery, unique hikes, and fascinating history.

History and Geology

Originally designated in 1932 as a National Landmark, Great Sand Dunes National Park was established in 2004 to preserve the unique character of the site and to protect valuable water resources that still exist just a few feet below the surface of the sand. Covering 44,245 acres, the sand dunes are the highest in North America. Trapped between the San Juan Mountain Range to the west and the Sangre de Cristo Range to the east, the dunes rise as high as 770 feet above the San Luis Valley floor. The dunefield evolved and grew over the past 440,000 years as winds from the west deposited sand left behind by the now extinct Rio Grande River and prehistoric Lake Alamosa at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range. The dunes grew higher as storms blew from the east down from the mountains pushing and depositing the sand back towards the valley floor. Contributing to this constant evolution Medano and Sand Creek run along the base of the dunefield carrying sand from the eastern edge of the dunes around to west edge where the eolian process continues in an endless loop.

The Hikes

The Park offers incredible dune hikes as well as hikes into the Rocky Mountains and through the valley’s grasslands and wetlands. Our favorite trail was to the summit of Star Dune, the highest dune in North America. I use the term “trail” loosely as I can’t tell you how we reached the Dune. As we entered the dunefield we gradually found our way up, around, down, and across several ridges, past High Dune, and eventually to the summit of Star Dune. From Star Dune we looked across the 30 square miles of the dunefield toward the Rocky Mountains in the distance. If you remember your sled (we didn’t) you can make the trip down the dunes much quicker by sliding or sandboarding down the sandy slopes to the edge of Medano Creek.

Safe Travels

A uniquely exciting trip, I would recommend Great Sand Dunes National Park to anyone looking to escape the city for a long weekend. If by chance you have enough vacation days to extend the trip, the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park is a quick and beautiful four hour drive north through the Rocky Mountains. Drive safely and remember your water and sunscreen!

A Deep Well and Living Water: Mission to Nicaragua

September 2, 2014 Studio Outside

Studio Outside's Paul Freeland traveled to Nicaragua recently with representatives from Weathermatic and Hines Irrigation to help bring water to a small village via drilling a deep well. Living Water International, the organization supporting the mission on the ground in Nicaragua, is an international organization with the goal of bringing safe, clean drinking water for as many people as possible.

Below is an excerpt from Paul's blog about the trip, which you can read more about here.

This is the story of my trip to Rivas, Nicaragua, to drill a well for a small community of approx. 100 Nicaraguans through the mission work of Living Water International.

If you've never heard of this incredible mission, or the work they are doing worldwide, there is a lot of information at their website regarding their vision and mission work all over the world. Their one goal: provide safe, clean, drinking water for as many people as possible. Our story will be repeated over and over again across the world, each and every week, as short term mission trips just like ours launch each and every Sunday to remote locations with the hopes making an impact on a community, both physically ... and spiritually.

The message is a powerful one. There is no shortage of riveting stories, images, and testimonies of problems all over the world that stem from a lack of clean water. I had been considering (and praying) for ways to get involved in a mission trip where God's timing and will would lead me to the right place and time and I was given an opportunity that was very difficult to pass up.

We arrived in Managua and met the Living Water team of Frank, Leo, and Lisseth. All three serve as a LWI drilling + hygiene Team A that work together each and every week with the varying short term trip teams arriving from the states. A well is attempted by each team every other week, allowing Team B to drill and work with STT teams on the off weeks.

We drove about an hour to Granada where we were staying with Jorge and Karla, who served as our In-Field directors and hosts for the week.

The second day was spent drilling the full length of the well to the second water table at around 65'. We made the decision to stop drilling as we were beginning to hit some rock and Frank was confident the water at this level would be acceptable.

We filled the now 65' hole with 8" pvc pipe that we lowered into the ground that will serve as the conduit for the well water pipe. The hole was filled with 10' of washed gravel, sand, and covered with concrete to form a cap between the two water tables. The gravel, along with generous amounts of chlorox poured into the pipe, cleans the water. The rest of the day is spent developing the well by pumping water out through the gravel and flushing the well.