Great Sand Dunes National Park



Day 33: Wednesday, July 31, 2019

We were on the road by 8:30 am and hit some morning traffic through Boulder and Denver. It was a much bumpier ride than we expected—go figure, on major highways. We made a few gas stops but decided to power through and get to the campground by early afternoon and have lunch when we arrived. We got the KOA Alamosa around 2 pm and did a quick setup before grilling hot dogs for lunch. The kids swam with Sean while I got some work done.


Sean took the kids out for a few groceries and then they spent the afternoon at the pool while I got some work done. 


They discovered that the town of Alamosa actually had a few decent restaurants so we decided to go to the San Luis River Brewing Company for dinner. I really enjoyed their green chile-infused beer and we had a bunch of delicious dishes, including homemade flavored sausages, pork chili smothered fries, and burgers. Kinsey had the Blanca burger, which reminded us of our sweet girl 💗. We stopped at Sonic for ice cream blenders and then headed back to the campground for the night.



Day 34: Thursday, August 1, 2019

I started the day with a 6-mile run—longest run on this trip and in over 2 months! It was a flat in all areas around the campground, though Alamosa is at more than 7,000 feet elevation, and I was feeling pretty well rested and ready to greet the sunrise with a great run. I’ve enjoyed running what I want when I can on this trip, but I am feeling the itch to get back to a solid training plan when we get back home.



We didn’t have to rush into the park because it was pretty close and not so vast that we would need all day to explore, so we made a big breakfast before we went. Sean cooked pancakes and bacon on the grill and I made scrambled eggs at Barrett’s request.
  
We arrived at Great Sand Dunes National Park and headed straight to the visitor center. The kids got their junior ranger books and we asked about the hikes we were considering.




There were basically two options—hike through the woods to an overlook to see the dunes from afar or hike up the dunes. It was already mid-morning and we didn’t want to hike the entirety of the dunes so we went for the overlook trail. We were pretty well prepared with sunscreen and bug spray (highly recommended by the rangers and others), but the mosquitos were still out of control! We made it the 1-mile out, and luckily the two applications of bug spray did it’s job at preventing bites, but the bugs were still swarming us pretty badly—yuck! We saw the dunes, took a few pictures and then saw a different path we could take back that ended up being less mosquito-ridden and shorter!






We got back to the car and then headed to the area for Medano Creek and the dunes. By this time in the summer, the creek was down to 1-3 inches in some places, but normally you might have to cross nearly a foot of water to get over to the dunes. There were lots of people hanging by the creek, kids playing in the water, and then lots more people up on the dunes, sledding and skiing.

We trekked up and over a few dunes and then sat to take in the views. We did not rent sandboards ahead of time, not realizing that you had to do that outside the park. Sean and I have already tried sandboarding, so we promised the kids we’d take them to sandboard at San Nicolas, near where we live.

We still enjoyed the views and the fine, soft sand. The kids and I decided to take off our shoes and socks to walk back through the sand and creek barefoot—BIG mistake! After about 20 steps our feet were burning so we sat down to put our socks back on, then walked the rest of the way through the sand and through the creek.











Next we went back to the visitor center to finish the junior ranger books and get sworn in. We got a few souvenirs and said goodbye to the Great Sand Dunes.



People had recommended Zapata Falls as a sight to see just outside the park so we figured we’d go there and have a picnic lunch and check it out. We were not at all prepared for the 4 miles of extremely ROUGH road—it was so bad it took us about 30 minutes to go that distance!! We finally arrived and there were lots of other cars so we thought it must be worth it. We ate lunch and then made the short hike out to the flowing creek. When we arrived at the creek we couldn’t see the falls just yet, but saw that everyone was wading through the cold, rushing water to get to them. We’d come all that way, so it was time to get wet! We all excitedly waded through the water and got upstream a bit and got a glimpse of the lower falls and just beyond that the upper falls—WOW!!! Totally worth the ice cold water and the horrendous rocky drive.








Once we completed that adventure, we were ready to get back to the campground and relax for the rest of the afternoon. We had some pool time and I got to finish my latest book, Perfect Match by Jodi Piccoult. It was an old book I picked up in one of the campgrounds and left me just as perplexed as some of the other Jodi Piccoult books I’ve read in the past. The kids and I had a cannonball jumping contest and Kinsey and I won the majority of the jumps.


We had some yummy taco soup for dinner (instant pot for the win!), finished ice creams from the night before, read our new books. We’ve been collecting the Good Night book series for years now and have added quite a few new ones to our collection along our travels this summer. Another family game of Skip-bo and Kinsey won to take the lead for the summer series, go girl!!

We took a little walk around the campground before dinner--these views were hard to resist!




Tomorrow the adventure continues!

Great Sand Dunes National Park Highlights
BDG-seeing the giant sand dunes
KPG-hiking to Zapata Falls
EAG-sitting on top of a giant sand dune and standing beneath Zapata Falls
SGG-seeing the sand dunes
Location: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado, USA

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