Colorado

June 23, 2013: Today we said vaya con dios to New Mexico. On the way out of town we checked out the Rio Grande Suspension bridge. We drove up to Colorado while the kids napped. Our destination was Great Sand Dunes National Park. These amazing sand dunes are incredible to see from afar and close up. We got out, lathered in sunscreen, loaded packs with water and snacks and set out. There is no set trail you just go wherever you want to explore. It is you walking as your feet ink in and your sneakers get loaded with sand. You can't wear sandals because your feet will get too hot. We explored and hiked around for about 2 hours. The wind blew very strongly at times and you have to be sure to turn your back to it. The kids had fun setting off sand avalanches from the ridges and running down hill. It was a very unique place to explore and we all had fun. Our plan was to leave a drive a bit towards Pagosa Springs, CO. We could see that there were forest fires somewhere to the west. We learned at a gas stop that the highway between us and our destination was closed because of the fires. So we had to detour down into New Mexico again to get around the fires. We went over the Chama pass and saw cool old coal trains to explore. We eventually made it to a campground outside of Pagosa Springs later than we had intended. The kids did fine with the unexpected detour, having sing a longs and playing silly games with each other in the car. We saw lots of elk and deer along the road. We set up camp in the last moments of light and were rewarded with a huge moon rising over the mountains.