Day 17 (51): Sand Dunes, Buffalo Bill, & Salina, KS

Well I really dropped the ball on this one. See, when we were on our trip I had this nice long beautiful post about this day, but had forgotten to get the mileage. I saved it, ready to put the mileage in the next day when, what do I find, but Blogger had deleted my post. Since we had returned home it has taken me, well, weeks to get back to finishing up. So I apologize, but do want to tell you about these last days!

We had a pretty restful night's sleep and ate a really good breakfast at the hotel before heading off. We had a long day ahead because we were on our way home and had planned for several hundred miles. Alamosa is very close to the Great Sand Dunes and we had initially planned to go there on our first leg but had decided, after a very long trip, to forgo it. Devin was the one who really wanted to see them; I wasn't convinced it would be all that interesting. See, I had been to Sand Dunes in Michigan; ya know, the kind on a lake. Big whoop. But since we were so close and he wanted to go so bad we made the very short detour.

We drove down this long road, right next to all of these beautiful pastures with mountains rising up our of them. It was quite beautiful. Then, all of a sudden, there was this huge pile of sand. No lake. No river. Just sand. Lots of sand. Lots and lots of sand. In the middle of this valley of mountains. We stopped at the visitor's center before going down the road to go out to the dunes.

The Great Sand Dunes is home to the tallest sand dune in North America, some 750 ft tall or something like that. There is a creek that runs beside it in the spring and summer, but when we were there it was dried up. The creek is fueled my the snow melt of the mountains, and it has something to do with the weathering on the mountains and the wind movement in the valley that keeps all the and pile up right here, in the middle of nowhere.

So we made the hike out to the dunes. I'll let the pictures tell most of the story. Naturally, Devin couldn't resist burying poor Mini-B in the sand.

So what do you do at a sand dune? Well you can hike them, but we didn't really have the energy or time for that. So, you jump off of them instead. We picked a fairly small one that was pretty close. First you have to convince yourself to do it.

 Then you go for it!

 Ok, so I'm not good with willingly jumping off of ledges, but if Dev can do it so can I! Maybe not as graceful though...

 If you actually jump, and manage to make it without sand in your pants (which I was not so lucky), the worst part is the climbing back up.

 But it really doesn't stop you from going round two. Dev got some good air on this one.

 Of course, Mini-B wanted to jump off too. Can you find him?

 He had an easier time climbing up.

 Although it took him a lot longer...

We had an amazing time at the dunes. Lots of people go out with sleds and things, sliding down the dunes. On our way out we passed some 20-somethings walking in with snowboards. They have showers and feet wash stations. It's much like a beach just without the ocean! Now we don't hide the fact that there are many places we've been that are not kid-appropriate. While we support taking children to the great outdoors there are many National Parks that are not appropriate for small children. We see many small children climbing on railings and more interested in things like squirrels than the 'sites' that these parks feature. As a science educator (yes, that's my career) not all NP's are age appropriate for small children, they don't understand the 'coolness' of it and oftentimes damage natural features. However, this is one NP that we would very much advocate bringing children to. Especially when the creek is running. There is something for kids to do and play with without the fear of damaging the area.

After cleaning out our shoes and socks we hit the road. We drove. And drove. And drove. Nothing very exciting. We made it La Junta, CO where we stopped for gas and lunch. Devin had found on Yelp a little taco stand "Lucy's Tacos" where we stopped. He had horchata and Tacos. He said it was one of the best he'd ever had. I had a burrito, but it wasn't anything to write home about (or blog about). We hit the road again...

When we crossed into Kansas we passed by the town of Oakley where Devin said "isn't that where the Buffalo Bill statue is?" I did a quick search on my phone for confirmation. When we were in Kansas on the first leg of our trip our relatives said that, on the way out of KS, to stop at the Buffalo Bill statue. We didn't, and although I remember wanting to I don't remember why we didn't...probably because we had had such a long day at that point. Anyway, we turned around and went back. I'm glad we did...it was SO cool!

 Can you find Mini-B?

 In true Mini-B fashion, he had a stand-off with the buffalo. It took a while to pull him away...

We hit the road a final time on our way to Salina, KS. We listened to the Cardinal's game and I worked on the blog (yep, the post that got deleted). We made it back to Salina and, after getting Wendy's, checked into the hotel. We stayed at the Sleep Inn. It was an awesome room with a couch and those big cushy beds and it was clean. Twice now we've stayed in Salina, KS and it has been a really great town! We crashed out, one last time before home.

Today we traveled 588.1 miles across America for a total of 5,540 miles on leg 2 and a grand total of 16,064.7 miles across America.