Playing in the Sand

Since we were so close to the Great Sand Dunes while staying in Alamosa, we decided to veer a bit out of our way to visit this amazing National park.  This is the view as we drove on the country road in southern Colorado.  The dunes are sandwiched between a high desert landscape and the Sangre de Cristo (blood of Christ) Mountains.

The visitor center had a very interesting 20 minute film that the four of us watched before heading out to the humongous pile of sand.

Usually during this time of the year, there is no water.  But lots of summer rain in the past couple of weeks made the Mendano Creek run again.  There were a lot of families heading up the dunes, their children carrying sleds for sliding down the sandy hills.

 Patty and I posed for a picture before heading up the hill.  We were both thankful that the day was cool and the sand was warm, not HOT!  As we reached the top of the dune closest to us, the wind was blowing and we could feel bits of sand hitting our legs.  Our partners were not as "daring".  They stayed behind in the parking lot.  Both Patty and I ran down the hill and thankfully kept our balance.  I sure didn't want sand in my hair or in my clothes.

Ron and Don's view:

And this is what we looked like as Patty and I headed back to meet up with them:

That's okay.  We still enjoyed our time there.  We were thankful that the Lord blessed us with azure blue skies and sun, especially since the weather predictions were quite different!