The Great Sand Dunes

It's been a few weeks since our trip down to the Great Sand Dunes, but I thought I might take a moment to recap the trip and share a few pictures.

It was a long way down to the Great Sand Dunes, around six hours. Matt and I drove in the Element, while Jo, Jim, and Frankie rode in the truck pulling a camping trailer. We stopped halfway and set up camp at a KOA campground. Frankie had a blast swimming around in the KOA pool while I sat in a lounge chair and baked in the sun.

Here's our campsite:

When we weren't watching Frankie swim, we spent most of our time hanging out in the air-conditioned trailer because it was blazingly hot. It was so hot that when I walked across the paved parking lot I could feel the heat from the pavement radiating back at me. I seriously feared that my flip-flops were going to melt.

That afternoon, we decided to take a tour of the nearby Cave of the Winds. It was really beautiful and best of all...cool!

That night, we cooked out on a campstove, made s'mores, and had a good time hanging out together at Jim and Jo's camper. That night, Frankie, Matt, and I slept in our tent, and Jim & Jo slept in the camper. It was actually a lot of fun sleeping outside. There was a super creepy guy in a beaten-up 1980's-style van with blacked out windows parked next to us, but once I got over my fear that he was going to murder us in our sleep and wear our skins while dancing in the moonlight, it was a great night.

The next day we packed everything up and drove the rest of the way down to the Great Sand Dunes. The campsite Jo had picked out for us was gorgeous, and we had a great view of the dunes.

The only bummer was that there was a campfire ban in effect for the rest of our trip. (At that point, pretty much the entire state of Colorado was on fire.) So, no campfire cooking or s'mores. But what we did get was....

Unbeknownst to me, moments later a giant and horrifying beetle would fly into my sweaty cleavage.

Sledding down the dunes. Whee!

Doesn't grandad look dashing in his Hello Kitty backpack?

There's usually a really beautiful (and refreshing) river flowing across the base of the dunes, but sadly it was so hot that the river had dried up just days before we arrived. After talking the river up to Frankie, she was a little bummed that it was gone, but ultimately she was a really good sport about it.

The dregs of the river, buried under the sand.

"Whee! I'm swimming!!"

Honestly, I had a great time. It was lots of fun spending time with the family, and we have quite a few wonderful and lasting memories from the trip. However, I'm not a very outdoorsy kind of gal, and going a few days without a shower was a real challenge. I hate feeling dirty, sweaty, and/or sticky, and those are pretty constant states of existence while on a camping trip. By the time we headed home, I was fantasizing about a bubble bath.

These memories stand out among all the others:

1) The heat
The temperature hovered around 100 degrees most days we were camping. It was too hot to do pretty much anything other than sit in the shade and hope for darkness to fall.

2) The wind
The last night at the Great Sand Dunes, there was a terrible windstorm. It kicked up right as the sun was going down, and lasted all the way through until morning. These winds were FIERCE. Trying to sleep in the tent was a real challenge. The sound of the wind howling and ripping and flapping through the vinyl of the tent was incredibly loud.  There no way to overstate how loud it was. It was like trying to sleep while skydiving. The wind would catch the sides of the tent and blow them in so that just as you were about o fall asleep, you'd be startled awake by the realization that the fabric of the tent was collapsed in so far that it was touching your nose. Not a restful wilderness experience.

3) The bugs
Biting flies are jerks. They think I taste delicious. No amount of bug spray will stop them.

4) Frankie
When we woke up at our campsite at the foot of the Great Sand Dunes, Frankie crawled out of her sleeping bag, wiped the sleep out of her eyes, and took a look around. The first thing she said (in a reverant hushed whisper) was, "Oh... It's so beautiful!" The smile on her face made the entire trip worth it.

5) The Moth
Inside the camper, Jo and I complained about an irritating moth that kept flapping around up. Jim, in a ninja-like manuever, looked up from what he was doing and SNATCHED THE MOTH RIGHT OUT OF THE AIR WITH ONE LIGHTENING-FAST GRAB. It was awesome, and totally unexpected. He's a real-life Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid. im caught the moth in his fist, and (because he has a kind heart) opened the door and shooed it back outside.

Jim rules!!

6) Climbing the Great Sand Dunes
The sand dunes were breathtakingly beautiful. I'm so happy I was able to see them. Bugs, heat, and wind... It was all worth it.

Camping face!!