Brian Crump, one of Jason's closest friends since elementary school, lives in Colorado Springs and because we were in Colorado we couldn't pass up a visit. We drove down after our adventure in the Rockies and stayed the night. His house is adorable and Colorado Springs seems like a great place if you're into being ridiculously physically fit and don't mind 100 degree warmth during the day followed by 40 degree chills at night. The next morning Brian took us to The Garden of the Gods. One of the coolest places we visited on our whole trip. The park consists of paths winding around massive cliffs and boulders that are the most incredible bright red. Standing in the shadows of these monsters is chilling, minimizing, and outstanding.
Kissing Camels
A weird cactus
A tree standing on two legs
Layers of sediment
Late morning we made our way to Mesa Verde National Park. Along the way we spontaneously made the 20 mile drive into nowhere for The Great Sand Dunes National Park.
I love this picture. It captures how vast the dunes are perfectly. They are the largest dunes in North America.
Only tree on the dunes.
The walk from the parking lot to the dunes is not long or difficult, but what you can not see until pass a line of shrubs is unexpected. Once passed the shrubbery you have to tip toe through what they call a "river" but is more like a trickle of water coming from who knows where. The sad thing are the dozens of family who come to the dunes to vacation on that "river" and allow their children to frolic in the wet sand. Many of the children look as if they are covered in poop mud and couldn't be happier about it. Burying each other, throwing mud balls, and building poop castles make their vacation to the dunes worth while.
We did see several people who had taken the time and energy to hike to the very top of the dunes to snowboard down. I can only imagine how difficult and freaking awesome it must have been because I sat at the bottom of the sand mountains.
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