Saturday, May 26, 2012

Day 10 - Great Sand Dunes NP


I am not sure how to describe today.  Stunning, treacherous, wonder-full, and just plain nice.

This morning when we woke up, the haze had settled and we could see the dunes in the distance against the backdrop of the mountains.  (30 mi by car, maybe 20 if you drew a straight line from our camp.)  We headed to the park first thing and immediately began our hike up the dunes, since we knew there was a high wind warning beginning at 1 PM.  It was already windy.  We hiked in about .75 mi before finally convincing the girls to turn back.  It was pretty brutal.  The wind was whipping sand into our eyes, ears, mouths and stinging our cheeks.  The people who work here at the KOA say they have never seen anything like this.  The girls said they had fun though.  And it really was beautiful.  It is a fascinating and unique combination of ecosystems.

After hiking, we explored the Visitor’s Center and Carmen got an Audubon book on insects.  She is so happy!  She keeps reading us things, then apologizing.  Driving back to the campground was interesting.  Visibility was low because of the dust blowing everywhere and the wind was tossing the truck around a bit.  Glad we weren’t pulling the camper!

We spent the afternoon at the campground in the rec room, which was pretty nice.  The winds seem to have calmed down now.  We will go back to the park tomorrow.

Here is a link to a Picasa album.  Let’s see if I figured it out!


Happy travels!

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