Great Sand Dunes National Park

After driving way too long, we finally arrived at Great Sand Dune National Park in Colorado.  The actual national park campground was full, so we had made reservations at San Luis State Park.  It wasn't the most beautiful campground, but it had clean bathrooms and electric hookups, so we were good.

It was insanely windy when we arrived, and, although we were planning on sand boarding, the rental place closed in an hour, so we decided to just visit the dunes and come back the next day to sand board and sled.

Did I say it was windy?  It was crazy windy.  We were beaten around by the wind and sand so much that we made the trip quick.  Then we retreated to the camper, where we cooked up a quick pot of spaghetti and ate some dinner.  Then we showered, popped some popcorn, and played card games in the camper all night.

The next day, we came prepared.  We hit the rental store early and rented boards and sleds and grabbed some bandanas as well.  Then we hit the dunes for some action.  Justin and I figured the kids would do a good amount of falling before they decided they didn't want to ride the dunes anymore.  Boy!  Were we wrong!

Although they did a fair amount of falling, they also rocked those dunes like they had done it for years.  After tackling the small hills, they were ready for some steeper ones, so we climbed several taller dunes looking for the next big rush.

Here's a cute video of one of Tate's bigger crashes.  Believe it or not, she got right back up and carted her board back to the top of the hill to try again.

We spent several hours at the dunes, and then we packed it up.  We headed back to the car, emptied the pounds of sand in our shoes, shirts, pants pockets, ears...  you name it!  There is sand everywhere.

We returned the sand boards and sleds and hit the road again.  We made it to Denver a few hours later.  We've set up a nice little camp at Cherry Creek State Park, and we plan to hit the sights of the city in the morning.  We'll check in again soon.