Salamander City: Colorado Trip, First Stop

Alright, there is a good reason that I haven't posted for over a week. We've been gone for a week, on a whirlwind tour of Colorado.

This tour had a definite theme: WIND. There were very few meals where we didn't have to hold onto our plates, literally.

First, we drove to San Luis Lakes State Park, which is 8 miles outside Great Sand Dunes Natl Park. This campground (San Luis) has been given many nicknames by my friends, the most notable of which is "the windy litterbox". I have to say that thankfully, the park did not quite live up to it's bad nicknames. Although, the wind, it blew. And blew. And blew.

There was a slight wind as we were setting up camp, which died down in time for a campfire. And then shortly after we went to bed, the wind started. It didn't stop when we woke up, in fact, it was so windy we had to tie down our tents, and our friends actually collapsed their tent (on purpose) so that it wouldn't blow away.

That day we went into Great Sand Dunes Natl Park, and spent all day. Now, the reason the sand dunes are there, is because of the wind. It was very apparent to us how they formed that day. I took very few pictures, mainly because I didn't want to get out my camera, sand could have ruined it. We found a somewhat sheltered spot behind some shrubby bushes (not very sheltered!) and ventured out occassionally to play in the water and go for short walks. No long meandering walks this trip, the wind was cool, the water was chilly, and if you wandered into the sand, your legs got pelted painfully by the wind-blown sand. Not to mention that the sand went into your eyes (in mine, painfully under my contacts), and in your ears.

The kids had a wonderful time. Many sand castles were built, channels dug, dams made (an especially amusing attempt made by the adults), and trips to the top of the dunes attempted. I got half of a mermaid doll knitted, that is the only day I worked on it. A lot of us got sunburned, somehow I mostly escaped it. (I had MANY layers of sunscreen on, though!)

Once again, the wind died down that night right around campfire time.

Ironically, the next morning was calm and partly cloudy. We were all on our way to the next stop, and had no time to enjoy that day at the dunes.

We took a hike up to Zapota Falls, which had so much snow runoff that we couldn't even see the falls.

Apparently, normally one wades through the ankle deep (or shallower) creek around some boulders to view the falls. A few adults were attempting this, but we weren't even going to try, I didn't want the kids swept downstream! It was very pretty up there, very fairy-like environment. If there hadn't been so many people, we are fairly certain we would have had a sighting :-)