Day 17 Great Sand Dunes

May 18, 2013

After a lengthy stay exploring New Mexico from top to bottom, we have finally moved on to southern Colorado. We already miss Bruce, our camp host/tour guide for the last 6 days :). We stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, CO. It was a pretty windy day and not a whole lot else around, so we decided to make our visit here short and head over the the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

This place is pretty crazy. Giant sand dunes up to 750 ft tall blown up against Sangre de Cristo mountain range and surrounded by 2 streams. It looks like the Sahara, not that I’ve ever seen the Sahara, but I’d imagine it’d be something like this...

It is a haven for kids; playing in the stream, climbing the dunes, sliding down on sleds. We are feeling a bit too lazy today to be like all these kiddos. After witnessing one of them having having a meltdown, we agree that parenthood probably takes an incredible amount of patience.

It has been a lovely little visit to our 3rd national park. Back on the road! We made it as far as Gunnison, a town about 60 miles east of the Black Canyon. Instead of driving up there at night, we parked it at a Walmart and have a nice and cheap dinner at Ol’ Miner Steakhouse.

Total Miles: 184
Total Gas: $150.10
Mistake of the day: Nearly ran out of gas getting through a mountain pass. Lesson learned!