Great Sand Dunes National Park

The sand Dunes are awesome! We packed WAY TOO MUCH water with us. I took 4.5 Liters and Aleksey took 5.5L, of which we drank about 1.5L. We took a very strenuous hike up to the 650 foot high “High Dune”about 1.25 miles from the parking lot. It might not sound like a lot, but it sure felt like it.
The best part about hiking UP a sand dune is playing on the way DOWN. We partook in an activity i like to call “Hulk’ing.” Hulking consists of running and jumping very quickly down a sand dune, just like the big green Hulk runs and jumps. Aleksey ran down one of the hills barefoot and realized too late that the sand quickly becomes hard and rough toward the bottom. By this time he was already traveling WAY TOO FAST to slow down, let alone stop. While waiting, watching and laughing uncontrollably, i eperienced the doppler effect first hand (the increase in volume of an object traveling closer to another object – i.e Aleksey to me) thanks to Aleksey’s screaming all the way down the hill. He was rewarded for his courageous act with pink feet rubbed raw by the sand and stone. Pictures below:
We finished at the park around 1 p.m. We both cleaned up, took showers, ate a great salad and started heading over to Colorado Springs.

Videos:

Santa Fe and the road to Great Sand Dunes CO

After we woke up at our great campsite, we made a couple of posts and then headed off into town. We walked into the “Plaza” where some guys were playing a bunch of xylephones. They were so good that i bought one of their CD’s even though i don’t have a CD player in my car (and aleksey does not have one on his computer).
We stopped by for brunch at a local place called “Cafe Pasqual’s.” I had a stuffed chile pepper with sunny side up eggs on top covered in salsa. Aleksey had an omelete with guacamole, chile peppers, mushrooms and an English Muffin with excellent homemad jam.
After we entered the Saint Francis Cathedral which had exquisite stained glass paintings. The last stop before we left for the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado was an art center with several incredible works of art. The ones i really enjoyed were a life sized mountain lion crawling on a tree limb made of clay. Looking into the lions eyes made me uneasy, almost like he was going to jump right at me. Another statue with a similar effect was of an Indian warrior with a early style rifle.

The Road to the dunes in Colorado was beautiful but uneventful. The only mention worthy stop along the way was the “beercan castle,” a house that is covered with beer cans and rims. We arrived at Great Sand Dunes campsite located about 5 miles outside of the park! We found a great spot to set up camp, went to the dunes at night to walk around a bit, then started a fire when we got back to the tent. Soup, stars, fire, corona… Good Night.