Two things prompted today’s post: Ken Burns’ six-part National Parks documentary that I DVR’d and finally started watching the other day (amazing!), and digital photos from 2007 that I’m looking at in prepration to finally start catching up on my family photo albums (thanks Creative Memories for the nudge). It’s a chilly autumn day here in Colorado, and I enjoyed reminiscing about our vacations in toasty summer heat!
Two years ago my family and I road-tripped to Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a stop on the way home at the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve near Alamosa in south-central Colorado. Home to the tallest sand dunes in North America — at 700 feet — this is definitely one of the country’s most unusual national parks. At the visitor’s center, you can learn all about the geological phenomena that caused the giant piles of sand to get deposited at the foot of the jagged Sangre de Cristo mountains. Here, our kids picked up activity booklets (for 50 cents each) to earn Junior Ranger badges by answering questions about interactive exhibits indoors and by observing nature outside.
Indeed, the best part about this park is that the scene is not just for viewing but experiencing. The dunes are open for exploration 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We had a ball hiking across and up the Sahara-like mountains of sand and rolling down them (okay, I took photos — the kids and the kid-like husband actually got all sandy):
Since we visited in June, Medano Creek, which flows along the base of the dunes, was still rushing pretty high due to snowmelt — so we all donned bathing suits to wash off the sand in the chilly water!
Playing in sand, water and mud? What more could kids ask for? If you think your kids would dig this, too, you’ll want to visit in late May through July; the creek usually dries up in August. You can always check creek conditions online.
I highly recommend Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve for any families road-tripping through the state. We camped at nearby San Luise Lakes State Park (which was nothing to write home about, but nothing wrong with it either). Otherwise, Pinyon Flats Campground is operated by the National Park Service and individual sites are on a first-come, first-served basis. If you need a real bed, check out the motel-style Great Sand Dunes Lodge.
That’s so cool. I don’t know when we will get to the real Sahara but I think this sand dunes can be a cool substitute in the mean time. The big plus is they can wash it off at the creek. Perfect!
[...] major cities: Durango, Colorado, is 1.5 hours away and Cortez is about an hour away by [...]
[...] we visited the Great Sand Dunes in June , Medano Creek at the dunes’ base was flowing like crazy with spring snowmelt. The creek was [...]
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