Sand For Days
Guys!! We’re officially back on the road and it feels good to get some miles under our tires! Now that we’re done with our State Tour where we visited all of the states we could drive to, we have officially started our National Park Tour.
It took us two long days to get to Alamosa, CO and when we did…there wasn’t too much there. It was sandy and hot…but the views of the mountains from our “yard” were welcome.
I’ve always been curious about Great Sand Dunes National Park. It sounds odd to say that the highest sand dunes in North America are in Colorado…but, they are. Driving to the park, all you see is the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. You’d never know you were driving toward sand dunes until you turn a corner and then there they are stretching out under the mountains. Looking deceptively small.
The highest dune is close to 750 feet tall and called Star Dune. To get to the dunes you have to cross the Medano Creek first. The creek wasn’t very deep when we went, but it can have waves up to a foot deep depending on the time of year. We rented some sand sleds from a nearby store and the boys had a good time sledding down the dunes a few times. The sand at Sand Dunes is very different than the sand at White Sand National Monument. The sand at Dunes sticks to everything…including the boards whereas the sand at White Sands seems to slide right off of everything.
It’s hard walking in sand. You take a step forward and slide back almost as far as you stepped. It makes walking up sand dunes more taxing than you’d think. Add that to the fact that we’d just spent nine months at near sea level…and well, we definitely got a workout. I made it up to this point and decided my view was pretty darn good. Jerl, Charles, and Alex decided to try and go farther up.
Nicholas and I walked at a more leisurely pace until we got to a very steep section. We decided we’d just sit in the sand and have a snack…and people watch. The view from our snack spot was pretty amazing. It wasn’t the worst place to have a snack.
I sent my camera with Jerl up to the top. He got some great shots! When you visit the dunes, you’re really only seeing a small portion of the thirty square miles of sand dunes. In fact, the park itself encompasses woodlands, grasslands, 13,000 foot mountains, and alpine tundras.
It’s hard to convey the size of the dunes. Here’s a picture that will help give you and idea of the scale. Those little dots are people on the dunes. We’d been warned to get there early in the morning not only because the dunes get busy but because the sand gets hot fast. Sand temps can reach 150° when the air temp is only 80° to 90°.
On the way to Great Sand Dunes NP we kept passing this little gravel road that went up the side of a mountain…so…we had to see where it went. It was one of the bumpiest roads we’ve been on in our car! We never made it to the lake that was said to be at the end of the road, but we made it a good distance up the mountain before we turned around. The view was hazy, but decent.
It wouldn’t be a proper post without some foodies. Guys, this burger…yes, there’s a burger under there somewhere…is firmly on our list of top five burgers. When I got this burger, I didn’t know it was an open-faced burger. Ha! I thought they’d given me the wrong thing, but it looked so good I was going to ask if I could just have it instead of what I’d ordered. It’s a smothered green chili burger with pepper jack cheese. We liked it so much we ate there twice in one week instead of trying someplace new.
Our first week back to being nomads went by quickly. We fell back into the usual rhythm of our traveling lives pretty easily.
See y’all down the road!
#NationalParkTour