Great Sand Dunes

We started off with Eileen cooking breakfast. After that, we hopped on the car for the 80 minute drive to Great Sand Dunes NP. Along the way we stopped at Spindrift Sand Boards to pick up boards to use as sleds, no standing up for us.

As you approach the park, the view is amazing. At the base of the mountains, there are miles of sand dunes, with the highest being about 750 ft. It doesn't look like it could be real.

Once in the park, we hiked through the sand to the dunes. We didn't do that well on our first couple attempts, in part by not picking sand that was really dry. We kept turning and flipping. A couple guys told us that for them, the key was to not keep hands on handles, but keeping them outside sled to steer. After that, we picked a fairly steep, long run and had success. We made 4 runs on this (you have to hike back up so it takes a while). Videos are attached, make sure you have volume turned up.

When we got to the car, we spent 15 minutes getting most of the sand off of us, including eyes, nose, and ears.

After leaving the park, we stopped at Zapata Falls at the recommendation of Amy, the woman who rented us sand boards. It was a .5 mile hike at 9000 ft. To see the falls, you had to hike up and across the stream at the top. Pretty cool, with the hike.

After that, we returned the boards and spent 20 minutes talking with Amy. She has big plans to expand to multiple locations and to manufacturer hemp sand boards. She and her husband and 4 dogs live in a tiny house (under 200 SQ ft) off grid.

Next stop was the Crafty Canary brewery (2nd day) for dinner and beer. The food was great.

We tried to find a shower in the campground but no luck with that, a problem for tomorrow.Read more