Great Sand Dunes National Park

After we left Santa Fe, we took a scenic byway through the mountains to get to Vail. We were within 30 miles of the Great Sand Dunes National Park, so of course we had to make a quick stop along the way.

It had been raining most of the drive, but we got a brief reprieve just long enough to walk out on the dunes. It was still crazy windy there so we only tromped around for about 30 minutes or so before moving on to the visitor center.

Once we made our way out to the first dune, we asked a gentleman to take our picture. When he gave the camera back to Michael we realized he was wearing OU crocs and a baseball cap. We told him we lived in Norman and he couldn't believe it. He lives in Dennison, TX now, but is Sooner-born and Sooner-bred! 

Several folks had brought/rented sleds to slide down the dunes. Brilliant! We weren't there long enough to try that, but if you ever go it looks like a lot of fun.

Here's a video of Michael and Gray running down one of the small dunes. You may want to turn the volume down...the wind noise is ridiculous!

When we were in Yellowstone, Gray started collecting pressed pennies and stamps in his National Parks Passport. We got to add Great Sand Dunes to his collection!

Here's a shot from our drive. The clouds looked like they were spilling over the mountains ahead.

Gray liked driving through this cutout in the mountain.