A beautiful Saturday, we were too lazy to really exert ourselves, and wanted to spend the day with Lisa's parents before they left for Chicago next day. Lisa suggested going to the Great Sand Dunes National Park -- less than a 2 hour drive, and so we went!
The dunes are huge! Read on other sites for more details, but basically all this sand was transported by the winds between the San Juans and El Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges, covering over 30 square miles of land. Only about 10% of the dunes are visible from the front, and they're beautiful, surrounded by 13-thousand foot snowy peaks.
Lisa and I get so few pictures together, we jumped at the opportunity of having another one:
Sue, Lisa's mom, really likes the dunes, and was enjoying strolling in the creek and the sand...
The dunes rise up to 750 feet over the valley floor, and we decided to climb up to the ridge to take a peek at what's behind them. Lisa kept finding weird stuff in the sand -- dried owl puke?
The dunes are constantly moving -- I enjoyed playing with a hands-on exhibit at the visitor center, whereby I could control an electric fan and blow sand around a closed box, simulating how the dunes were created. Lisa climbed up a few and slid down -- a different form of "transport":
Running down the dunes is fun too -- they're quite steep in places, it's hard to stop, and falling can be hard :)
Next time we'll bring some sand boards and see how they carve :)