Herard and Medano have been on my radar for years, both because they form the backdrop to Great Sand Dunes NP and because they exist as a lone outlier pair in the Sangres, which I suspected would give them something of an edge on summit views given the large drops in elevation both north and south of them. I was partially right.

I approached Medano Pass from the East as I drive a Subaru Outback and didn't want to mess with the sand or water crossing from the West side. The google directions if you type in "Medano Pass" are still wrong and have one passing the 559 turnoff when driving up CO69 from the south and then backtracking through private property back south to return to 559. Numerous CRs on this site alerted me to this but even just typing it in, you can see that google is having some trouble. Finding the turnoff is fine as it's well-signed, and the road is 2WD for most of it's length.

A little more than 2 miles below the top of the pass, there's a steep and rocky grade on the road that did surprise me given I've read that Subaru's should have no problems making the top of the pass from the East. It took me several tries of getting a "running start" at the obstacle as the Outback just doesn't have enough power to crawl over obstacles at that angle in a controlled ascent. I did make it over and once past it, the remaining road to the top of the pass goes pretty easy. There are numerous camping spots one can camp at past this incline, and as I drove up Saturday evening most of them were full but I still snagged one about a mile shy of the pass. I drifted off to sleep to the sound of children screaming at one another from up the road and even as the quiet of night fell, I could hear no parents or guardians intervening. I imagined a Lord of the Flies situation might be going on up the road and hoped that when I'd be going past them in the dark of night that I wouldn't come across strange grungy forest children with makeshift spears blocking my path.

My plans of waking up early for a sunrise summit on Sunday faded as I coughed and hacked the entire night in camp. I was battling an upper-respiratory infection a few days prior to this trip and coming up from 3000' in Texas to try sleeping at 9000' wasn't friendly on my lungs. I resisted puffing my inhaler as that generally means being awake and jittery for a few hours afterwards, so I instead just stayed awake tired and coughing most of the night. When 1am came I was in no condition to hike, so I opted to sleep in and try the hike on Monday since I had the day off.

Sunday morning I woke up to a pretty impressive sunrise with some cool pink clouds to the East, and I cursed my luck that I missed being able to enjoy it from higher terrain. I spent the day reading my kindle and watching dozens and dozens of cars drive both directions on the road. Later in the morning I walked the mile up to the pass and down the other side to the Medano Lakes TH to see about driving it in the dark. The west side of the pass had some steep and loose terrain that I wasn't sure I could get the Subaru back up after the hike, and the parking at the top of the pass itself was very limited and full of campers, so having this beta was useful as it meant I'd be hiking a little bit longer the next day.

Monday morning at 1am my alarm went off and I felt great. I was on the road by 120am and at the Medano Lakes TH by 2am. There was a large group set up in a meadow just shy of the camp with maybe a dozen horses who's glowing eyes off my headlamp startled me. There was also a fire going on the other side of the meadow and I found it odd that people were still hanging out around the campfire at this hour. They probably thought the same of this weird guy passing through.

The trail from the small parking area at the trailhead is very obvious and easy to follow even in the dark all the way to the lake. I moved pretty slow despite the gentle gradient and covered the four miles to the lakes in 2 hours, stopping every 30 minutes to puff my inhaler. Once at the lakes I wandered around for a few minutes looking for a cairn that would show the way up north/northwest off the trail towards the Medano/Herard saddle, but I couldn't find it, so I just plowed up a few hundred feet until I hit cliff bands. I traversed west underneath them and stumbled upon a really obvious and well-made trail that surprised me and ultimately lead all the way to the saddle.

As I crested the saddle the winds which had been pushing clouds over the area the entire morning reached the ground, so I dropped back off the east side of the ridge to verify that I could stay out of them for the most part by just being a few feet below the ridge. At this point sunrise was still 90 minutes away but I didn't want to be shivering in the wind on top of Herard waiting for it, so I decided to move partially up the ridge and find a place with good views to drop off the east side and hang out waiting for the sun. The perfect spot does exist, and it was at the false summit which offered some stunning views for the coming sunrise, so I settled down there around 545 to wait the half hour for the light to get good.

I live in Lubbock, Texas, where the forecast for all three days of Labor Day weekend was for 100+degree temperatures. Shivering while waiting for the sun felt like a dream.

This spot just below the false summit featured what would be the best views of the day, with big cliffs below Herard's true summit forming an amphitheater to the south and with unobstructed views north towards the Crestones.

From the false summit to the summit it's all class 1 hiking across tundra. There is a use trail but I opted to stay as far East as possible to avoid the worst of the wind, which was both cold and tiring.

I didn't linger long on Herard as the wind was taking it out of me, and the views towards the Blanca group in the morning weren't much as the sun has drifted far enough south by September that they're mostly washed out in the morning. This would be a cool spot to photograph sunset on the dunes though. Perhaps another trip.

The hike up Medano from the saddle is only 600' so it goes really fast. What looked like potentially interesting obstacles were all easily skated through with minimal effort.

On Medano I tried to linger longer as I wasn't ready to hike down and start the drive back to Texas yet, but the wind was merciless and blowing me around, so I spent maybe 10 minutes up there before packing up and heading back down.

Once back at the saddle, the hike down to the lakes would go quickly except that I hadn't enjoyed any of it on the hike up in the dark, so I stopped often for pictures. The wind was also completely calm on this side of the ridge which was much more comfortable to hike slowly in, so I sauntered down savoring every moment of being above treeline.

Given all the traffic and noise from the previous day, I expected to run into hikers or riders or people fishing the lakes when I got back down to them around 10am, but the entire basin was mine alone. This was a real treat. A few weekends ago at South Colony the entire weekend was a noisy affair of barking dogs and noisy groups from dawn to dusk. Last year for Labor Day I hiked Wetterhorn and was shocked that there were over a hundred people on the mountain that day. Medano Lakes was a beautiful reminder that even on a holiday weekend, if there are no 14ers nearby, one can generally expect complete solitude. I lingered on the rock shelf between the upper and lower lakes for an hour eating lunch and enjoying the quiet breezy late-morning quiet.

Around 11am I had to be an adult and make the mature decision to start hiking back down as I had an 8 hour drive ahead of me to get back home. I kept expecting to run into hikers or horses but encountered nobody on the entire 4 mile trail back to the trailhead apart from a single party of three maybe a mile up from the TH. I stopped often for pictures of the hints of fall.

A nice breeze and constant cloud shadows kept the heat of the day from getting to be too much, and the miles went pleasantly back to the trailhead. Once there, the small parking area was completely full with maybe a half dozen cars, but no people around. I hiked back to 559 and passed the horse camp, where a number of horses were now missing, but there were still no people to be seen. Once back at 559, the 400' hike back up Medano Pass was the only type-2 fun of the day, but 400' goes quickly so it was just enough to add a little character to the otherwise entirely type-1 day. A single group of 3 jeeps made an appearance near the top of the pass, but other than them, I was shocked to have enjoyed such a quiet Labor Day. Perhaps most weekend warriors like myself get outside on Saturday and Sunday and go home on Monday to do laundry. I've never been more grateful for a nagging cough having me miss a hike on a Sunday, though I was disappointed I couldn't bag Trinchera and the Leaning Peaks on my way back home as originally planned.

Strava showed around 14 miles and +5400' from my parking spot east of the pass.