The range is huge but access to these many thousands of acres of "public land" is nearly non-existent.  A Wilderness Bill passed a few years ago closed almost all the roads and made the entire area useless to just about everybody.  Only a handful of extremely healthy environmentalists or those wealthy enough to have horses, llamas, and mules can still get to it.  Even though Wilderness by definition is supposed to enclose only roadless areas, hundreds of miles of roads (defined by the forest service as ways) were closed locking out the handicapped, physically impaired, elderly, and every one else not capable of carrying a fifty pound backpack over 13,000 foot peaks.

The term "public lands" is a farce.  We pay for it but we can't access it and it is not "our land".  It is "their land" and "they" are minority special interest groups with big lawyers and lots of money.  They are able to shove their Wilderness areas down our throats and there seems to be nothing we can do about it.  This month, a whole new wilderness bill came to life and before it's finished, it will close more roads and many more acres of beautiful public land will become the private playground for those so-called environmentalists who will carry that bill through congress as if they owned the land themselves.

As with any Wilderness Bill, the new one will leave us true environmentalists with a few crumbs of the overall land to share with a huge population that wishes to experience the back country.

Last summer, we visited the few crumbs left to us in the Sangre De Cristo Range.  There is no argument that the tiny areas open to us are beautiful and every inch of it is well worth the visit.  Every corner we went into had special views to offer.  But even while enjoying that beauty, a cloud of sadness is always lurking above and is brought to light every time the road ends at another locked gate and wilderness road-closed sign.  This is is the first of a two-part story covering the dead-end roads as well as the through-roads in the Sangre De Cristo Range.  .

There are only two roads left open that go all the way across the Sangre De Cristo Range.  The most popular is Medano Pass.  That access provides a crossing from the east to get into Great Sand Dunes National Monument.  It is a very popular route and there are always lots of people there.  As with our last trip, we often end up rescuing some of them.

The other road crosses at Hayden Pass.  That pass is a little harder to find and since there is no attraction on either side, it is also seldom used.    Our journey began on the east side in the town of Westcliffe.

Pack the 4X4 and head out for the Sangre De Cristo Range.