A Day at the Dunes

Memorial Day 2005

Great Sand Dunes National Park

The Great Sand Dunes National Park is in the middle of the San Luis Valley in Colorado but when Medano Creek is running in the spring, it is the closest thing to the ocean and the beach that we'll ever have. We invited the Hamilton's to join us for a day at the dunes on Memorial Day. The weather was a little bit cold (we all wore jackets or sweatshirts) and breezy, and reminded us of spending a day on the Oregon coast.

We ate our picnic lunch in the parking lot and then loaded the wagon with boys and toys.. Jamie and Spencer had so much fun digging holes, building (and destroying) sandcastles and playing in the sand, mud and water. The water was cold but that didn't keep us from getting our feet wet. We did draw the line at body-surfing, however. It was fun to wiggle our toes in the sand. We saw people riding the waves on inner tubes, others were flying kites and still others carried their old snowboards across the creek to the dunes to do some sand boarding. There are lots of things to do at the Sand Dunes!
*NOTE* Our fun day was also educational as we learned that with the new "National Park" designation came a "Wilderness Area" designation A friendly ranger stopped by to tell us that our wagon (a wheeled conveyance) was prohibited. Oops!