Great Sand Dunes National Park

After Royal Gorge, we drove to Alamosa for the night. After jumping on the beds (in our family this is the biggest perk of staying in hotels), swimming in the pool, and eating pizza, the kids finally settled down and slept - all three in a queen pullout bed. At different stages of the night, the kids switched directions, positions, and even slept on top of each other. As only kids can, the slept through all of it.

The next morning, we headed to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Becca and I both hate sand because it gets every where, so we still don't know why we wanted to go, but it was fun and really cool and unique. They are the largest dunes in North America. 

We rented a sand sled from a local sports store and had some fun. You have to hike about 1/2 mile through the sand (like a big beach without the ocean) to get to the dunes, so we didn't hike very far up into them. It also was very hard work climbing back up after sledding down, so we only stayed on some smaller dunes, but it was plenty to get up speed and wipe out.

The vastness of the dunes was amazing. It all was the same, fine sand, but once you were in it, I think it'd be easy to get lost without the surrounding mountains and valley.

Wipeout

Asher absolutely loved the sledding. Riley and Tyson went down a few times, but preferred to just sit at the top of a dune and push sand around and play in it. Tyson hated walking in the sand and climbing the hills, so it was easier for all of us if he stayed in one place. On one run Asher and I took, we totally wiped out. I landed on top of him and I was pretty worried, but he came out of it giggling like crazy.

His own attempt wasn't that successful - after one solo run, he would only go with a parent.

As expected, sand got everywhere. EV.ER.Y.WHERE. We were finding sand in body parts and pockets for a few days. This is why we hate sand, but it was still worth it.

A view of the sand dunes from a nearby hike we did afterwards.