The Great Sand Dunes

This place had been on my list for a few years, but even though we'd driven past several times, we'd never been able to get over and see Great Sand Dunes National Park. So this time we reserved a camp site and met Grandpa Jim and Grandma Cindy to check it out. The winds converge at the edge of the Rockies, causing mountains of sand to form in the valley. The tallest sand dune is said to be around 700 feet above the valley floor and is the tallest in North America. It was easy to see where all the sand comes from, as that's pretty much all there was at our campsite.

We took the worst road I've probably ever been on to get to a short hike to Zapata Falls... but unfortunately I was the only one who actually made it back to see the falls, which wasn't really worth the hike. The friendly campground manager told us it never rains there, so of course while we were on the hike, it poured at the campsite and tried to destroy our tent. But after the hurricane winds died down, we were able to make camp on the first night and everything worked out.

The next morning, we got up early and set out to climb the dunes. We quickly discovered that walking in pure sand, especially while walking uphill at 8,000 feet above sea level, is not an easy task. By the time we made it to the top of the dune we set out to climb, Paul was crawling on his hands and knees, I was trying not to die, and Adam was somehow still jogging it. The views were incredible...

The photos don't really show how steep some of these dunes really were. Even Adam had to get down and crawl a little here and there...

Made it to the top! Of this one at least...