Still more notes from the Dunes

Well today was the day that we did it. We climbed the Dunes and honestly the long walk through the sand on the way to the base was harder to do at 8000 ft high than it was to actually climb the Dunes. At the base of the dunes is the Medano Creek. This time of year it is just a wide shallow trickle that we were able to cross without getting wet. Once we were up on the dunes there was a nice cool breeze. The sand was very fine and multi-colored, red, black and light sand color. Surprisingly once up there it was pretty stable if we stayed on the ridges of the dunes.
We were told the loose surface sand blows off the ridges and what is left is hard packed and relatively easy to walk on. The view was great and we could see our campground. The terrain up there was high ridges, and valleys in which small amounts of vegetation was actually growing.
We saw a storm approaching in the distance and came down off the Dune.

While walking in the park a little later we met a family with a pop up trailer that looked like it was the child of a Hummer very high, bright yellow with big tires. We stood and chatted for a while and they gave us a yellow squash from their garden at home. It was their son’s birthday and later in the evening brought a piece of blueberry Birthday Pie down to us at our campsite. What a surprise and what a delicious blueberry pie, berries the size of marbles.

The storm never materialized but it did cool off significantly. At this elevation it has never gone above the 80’s in the day with low humidity and down in the 50’s at night. We are still meeting very interesting people. This evening we met a man who has been traveling around the USA on his motorcycle for a year now and plans to continue for another year.
He is definitely a free spirit at 50 years of age he has only had seasonal jobs and has lived from Alaska working on crab boats to the Caribbean living on his own boat. His adventures provide great entertainment as we sat around our campfire tonight. His appearance does not lead one to identify his life style. He is clean cut, shaved and gives the appearance of an educated businessman. Very interesting to talk to.

Till tomorrow, Mom (Carol) and Chriss