Kissing Camels and Sand Dunes

6-23-2016

DAY 5


We had a yummy breakfast at Courtney, George, and Lily's house and they headed off for the Garden of the Gods. I didn't know what to expect, but when we got to the overlook, it was beautiful. The huge red sandstone monoliths have an incredible backdrop of Pike's Peak and the Rockies. The hiking was hot, but we got to see cool monoliths (like the "kissing camels") and lots of birds that are new to us.

After hiking in the Garden of the Gods, we got in the car to drive to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We heard a severe t-storm alert right about the same time we saw a billboard for an Ansel Adams exhibit, so we stopped in Pueblo, CO to check out the Art and Children's Museum. I loved looking at the Ansel Adams pictures. They are so inspiring! The Children's Museum seemed geared towards younger kids, but I worked with black and white chalk and made a cool drawing.

Back in the car again to drive to Great Sand Dunes. There was lots of heavy rain, but it helped to clean some of the disgusting build up of dead bugs that we have on our car. It cleared up on the other side of the mountains. As you drive up to the sand dunes, the view of them is amazing. We got to use my brother's 4th grade pass to get into the park, so it was free! We arrived at the visitor's center at 5:50, so we had 10 min to get into our bathing suits and chat with the park rangers about what we should do. He suggested that we hike to the top of the dunes for sunset. So just when most people are finishing up dinner, we set out on another hike.

Our plan was to play in Medosa Creek and then hike up the dunes, but the mosquitoes decided that it was there dinner time and we were the main course! So, we briefly splashed in the stream while slapping at mosquitoes and then headed up the dunes.

Hiking in the sand was much harder than you'd think. When it is really soft, we discovered it was easiest to walk in someone else's footsteps. Even with this strategy, the climb was still exhausting. Our original plan was to get to the top, but about halfway up James started to loose steam. Like a lot of steam. We then decided we wouldn't make it to the summit for sunset, so we then settled for a closer peak where you could still get a beautiful sunset.  Only moments after reaching the peak, I spotted a streak of lightning in the distance. After checking the weather forecast, we discovered it was heading our way. So we had to head down. 

The way down was a completely different kind of sandy mess. Suddenly, James summoned the energy to tear down the slopes. skidding to a stop feet -first every once and a while. I had a slightly different way of stopping, involving some face-plant action and a lot of sand down my shirt and in my hair and ears. This happened twice. Then I finally figured out that I just can't go that fast without breaking my neck. Then, the bugs came back. They even managed to make me run almost all the way to the car, including getting the ends of my pants wet by splashing across the water. 



At this point, everyone was starving, so after getting some sunset pics from across the plains, we headed to El Super Taco. As we were arriving, we spotted the store manager closing down for the night! My mom jumped out of the car and persuaded him to let us in. And so we ended the night with quesadillas and tacos, made to perfection.