We woke up to a very nice sunrise.Dad was slightly worried that we might have to call the fire department but it turned out to just be the sun illuminating the clouds.
After a prolonged breakfast experience we packed up and headed out. Our next destination was a familiar one, Great Sand Dunes National Park. We had stopped by on our last Southwest road trip, but we were excited to visit in a different season and with an eye for what we wanted to do.
It was a quick drive, just over 45 minutes, And then we were in the park. We stopped to rent a sand sled as our plastic model doesn't work particularly well on these dunes. With board in hand we parked (thank goodness for trailer and RV spots), and started the long walk up. You have to walk for probably ten minutes across the sand before even getting to the dunes, so our shoes were already full of sand by the time started to climb. We didn't go up quite as high this time on account of having twice as many dogs and Dad's Achilles injury. It turns out that walking up hill, in the sand, into the wind, and at 8,000 feet isn't easy. That said, we made it up quite a bit higher than most folks and made a small camp. From there we did lots of sledding and let the dogs run about a bit. The temperature was quite warm, close to 80, but there was a constant breeze blowing that alleviated the heat.
If you're adventurous you can hike very far into the sand dunes. They are large and go on for a long time. We didn't think we could carry enough water for a serious hike and Mom having to carry Dad back would have been problematic.
At one point there were some dark clouds in the distance and Remy said, "it looks like rain, we should go back." We obliged and sure enough, right as we got in the truck it started to downpour. It lasted only a few minutes but we were glad we had turned around when we did.
We left the dunes and headed to the Colorado Recreation Hot Springs, another familiar spot. This was the same RV spot we stayed in last time we visited Great Sand Dunes. We are a big fan of their hot springs pool. Last time we were here it was around 20 degrees outside. This time it was considerably warmer but there were thunderstorms in the area! The mountains were obscured by dust whipped up by the wind and the pool was closed twice during the evening due to lightning. We were able to get a good soak in between closures thankfully. We saw a bit to lightning on the horizon but otherwise didn't have to deal with much other than making sure our belongings didn't blow away.
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