Great Sand Dune National Park, CO

Hello again:

Happy Birthday to Cathy (Chriss's daughter)

We started driving today at about 12:30 or so driving west on route 160. Traveled less than 100 miles when we came across Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's about 30 miles of sand dunes that are about 750 feet high. Although I have some pictures, of course it doesn't really do it justice.

We can stay here for $7 a night (It pays to be a senior citizen). We'll stay for 5 days so we won't have to try and find a place during Labor Day weekend.

We're going to be out of touch for the next five days or so. I'll send an update when we can get online again.

Here's an updated map of our trip so far.

Thanks to my son Tom for typing as I dictated last night’s blog to him at his home in NJ. We have no hook ups at the park but I will write a 5 day blog to send out when I can. This is a beautiful spot in spite of not having electrical or water hook ups. We run the generator to charge batteries but would not be very well thought of in the park if we ran it all the time. So we haul water in jugs and are very conservative with the use of the power. But in spite of that are very pleased with our site. Have chatted with many people from all over the USA they just stop and chat as they walk by if we are outside and we do the same. Last evening we met a young lady named Clair with her dog Ellie, she was kind enough to offer to take a picture of us and then we took a picture of her and Ellie too. Last night we went for a walk after dark, and this place gives DARK a whole new meaning. This whole trip has been a series of “WOWs” one wonderful scene after another. Last night’s walk was another one, I saw more stars out than ever before and the milkyway was very visible in the night sky. I even saw a couple of shooting stars. We just sat in our chair in the middle of the trail in front of our camper where our view was the best, away from any lights from the rest rooms. Unfortunately, we scared one of our fellow camper to death when he was walking up the trail. This same person almost bumped into another walking camper and since he also had heard the snoring thought he might have hit a bear and gave out quite an OHHH when they met. We all giggled. It was that dark. We also heard some snoring and were seriously wondering if a bear was near by when we realized that another camper near by had gone to bed early and was snoring very loudly, much to our relief. His poor wife, or maybe it was the wife..

Each night at 7:00 PM they have a lecture in an amphitheater regarding some facet of the park. Last night it was about weeds that grow on the dunes, we missed it but will go tonight and listen to a different topic.
Today we plan to investigate our surroundings. Not far from our campsite there is a trail down to the dunes and we plan to try it out soon. So I will return later and continue.

Bye for now, Carol & Chriss.