The other thing I was excited for this morning was laundry and a hot shower! It seems like the combination of those two things somehow energize me so much that I feel like I can go on for another month or more. The rain had gotten to me so I definitely needed a boost.
While Dave packed up some of the things that needed to dry in the car, I reorganized the food after our Walmart stop and shifted the kids' bags around for our drive later. I dipped into the cold weather bags for a few long sleeve shirts as the nights had definitely warranted a little something extra. I suppose that's the Girl Scout in me kicking in trying to always be prepared! Once the laundry was done and all packed back up, I definitely felt better!
We decided to take a nature hike once we were packed up to learn about the area. Reason # 447 why it's nice to have Grammie along - she enjoys learning about the trees and plants more than I do! Dave and the kids humor me on these walks pretending to listen to the narrative at all the stops. We learned about area mountains, the native junipers and pinon pines and my animal whisperer even found this guy!
It's neat to see flowers everywhere in the middle of August! Most Florida flowers are long gone by this part of the summer.
As we climbed around near the end of the trail, each stop had a beautiful view of the lake and mountains nearby. There was a lot of history dating back to the early 1800s resulting in many hard to pronounce names!
We never did find out what this strange cactus is! We named it the pickle or asparagus cactus.
Ryan renamed this prickly pear the bunny catus!
Once we got back to our campsite we were ready to roll out to our next stop. Today would be a relatively short drive and I was in luck as Dave would be the driver today since it was Saturday! We decided to take the Scenic Highway of Ledgends part of the way and it absolutely did not disappoint. The change in terrain and landscape over the few hours we were in the car was breathtaking.
After about 3 hours we made a right turn into our next spot, Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. We have been to 2 different parks with giant dunes over our travels, but we'd never seen anything like this.
There were massive sand dunes (750ft high we found out later) tucked in front of a gorgeous range of mountains. We all wanted to know how in the world they got there! But first, we had to set up camp and have some dinner. As we were exploring the campground I noticed there was an acoustic guitar program tonight at the amphitheater so we quickly ate and did our dishes. We had a little bit of time so we went down to the visitors center to check it out but it was already closed. The kids were begging to go to the dunes, so we headed there without the camera to be able to enjoy it for a few minutes.
We made it back just in time to head down to get bundled and walk down to the program. The man who was playing had been selected to be a resident artist in several parks over the years and we were treated with some of the music he'd written each time. He had wonderful stories about his time in the parks and his experiences writing music. The music was wonderful and the backdrop was breathtaking!
After the show we headed back to our site to make a fire. The temperature had dropped dramatically since we'd been there. Welcome to Colorado!! Brayden had been asking for s'mores since June so we roasted some marshmallows and tried his new concoction - graham crackers, Reese's cups, and marshmallow. Laney and I thought it was okay and still preferred the regular way, Dave and Brayden loved it, and Ryan said it was good.
Everyone went to bed and I sat and enjoyed the fire until it was smoldering. I was treated to unbelievable night sky with several spectacular shooting stars. I even spotted the space station going by. I was a little suprised the kids fell asleep so quickly being so excited for playing on the dunes the next day!
Updates might be sporatic for a few days as all our electronic devices are dead and we're in the woods. I'll still be writing just will update as soon as I can!
