Thursday, August 19, 2010

Colorado - Part 3, Great Sand Dunes National Park

After a full day of driving and sight seeing, we crashed Saturday night in a hotel. We watched Scooby Doo and Transformers and ate raisins and goldfish crackers. (What? No beer?) Such is the life with little kids!

Sunday we drove an hour and half to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Imagine the mountains in the background in the shape of a large C with the open part of the C facing the southwest. Water, snow and wind bring sand and pebbles down the west slope of the mountain and the southwest wind blows it back again toward the mountain trapping the sand in the C to create the tallest dunes in North America, up to 750 ft. tall.


It is truly an awe inspiring sight which makes the Indiana Dunes seem rather worthless.
Yahoo would have been content sitting in one spot and playing in the sand all day long!
We arrived fairly early while it was still cool so the sand wasn't hot yet. In the summer, sand temperatures can reach 140 degrees!



Doesn't DR have sexy legs?

The boys wanted to climb to the very top but we only managed about 1/3 of the way. They contented themselves with climbing up and sliding back down over and over again. If only we had brought our snowsleds!!
Yap, DR and Yip decided to climb a particularly high dune.

Hello to you too!
Even though I didn't get a pic of it, Yap's favorite thing to do was slide on his back, head first down the dunes. I don't know about you but I'm not too sure about DR's fashion choices; shorts and a cowboy hat?
There was sand everywhere! There were even outdoor shower facilities to wash off all the sand. But we were still finding sand hours later!
Wow, where do they get the energy to do this all day?? And this is what they did for hours!

As we were leaving the park Sunday afternoon Yip was already asking when we could come back. I'd like to return and camp for a few days. It's not too far either, about a 6 hour drive. Very neat vacation spot and very out of the way!

Thanks Colorado for introducing me to the wonders of the Rockies!





1 comment:

  1. Now this is one spot in Colorado I have always managed to miss! Dang! I am going to have to put it on my bucket list ASAP while I think I can still climb up the dunes. Looks like you all had a lot of fun, but I do get itchy thinking about all that sand in "places." ;-)

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