Aug 17 2012
CO 2012 Recap, Part 1 – Great Sand Dunes
I know, I know, I’m a terrible mommyblogger for not yet having recapped our family vacay. FINALLY, I have a few minutes to put the kind of thoughts picture collages together to give you a sense of the trip. Since the post would be forever-long if I put it all into one, I’m going to divide up by the three major places we stayed: Great Sand Dunes National Park, Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte, and Buena Vista.
We started out on Saturday, July 14th, after Caleb’s All-Star baseball team finished up an amazing summer season. Our goal was Amarillo, but things were going well, so we pushed on to Clayton, NM for the night. We stayed in a little family-owned motel, the Holiday Motel in Clayton. It was clean, quiet, and clearly well-loved by the family-owners. We got a room with 3 (yes, 3) queen beds, and there was even room for a dresser, desk, two chairs and end table, and TV, and the room didn’t feel cramped at all. The bathroom was cute, clean, and the kind of retro that reminded me of the bathroom at my Nana’s house. We’d definitely stay there again. After a good night’s sleep, we loaded back up and headed for CO. We stopped in Raton for breakfast before heading up Raton pass and on to Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO.
Clayton, NM and Raton, NM pics
Great Sand Dunes National Park is something rather amazing to behold and almost impossible to really comprehend. First of all, they’re HUGE (750 feet, or thereabouts) – you can see them for hours before you’re anywhere near them. I think the information in the visitor’s center said the dunes themselves are something like 30 square miles. And it’s a crazy weather phenomenon that created them, too. I won’t try to explain it all here, when the Park’s website is really informative. The kids thought the dunes were neat, and we wandered around them for maybe an hour. It was quite warm that day, so we tried to be mindful of the sun and heat.
Park entrance and some visitor center shots
Out on the dunes
And, just in case you were wondering, in the middle right picture on that collage, that little blurry spot is Caleb. He got the bravest in dune exploration.
Sunday night we spent the night at the Great Sand Dunes Lodge. It’s a small lodge (10 rooms), but really cute. Clean, simple rooms, each with a semi-private porch off the back with INCREDIBLE views of the dunes, mountains, and surrounding valley. And, of course, the boys were THRILLED that it had an indoor pool. I would highly recommend the lodge. There are plenty of camping options around, too, if you’d rather go that route. Oh, and the hummingbirds! Did I mention those? Off each porch was a hummingbird feeder, and boy, did those hummingbirds love them! It really was so peaceful to sit on the porch with these views after a longish day in the car, hiking on the dunes, and swimming with the kids.
Some of the amazing views from our room’s back porch
The next morning after a hearty breakfast at the only restaurant around (which, of course, meant we had dinner there the night before, also), we loaded up and headed across the immense San Luis Valley (really, at what point does it cease to be a valley between two mountains and just become a plain between mountains?) toward Vacation Part 2: Crested Butte.