Monday, September 27

The countdown is on. We’re due to be in Iowa for a RV repair appointment one week from today which means Andi and I started to pencil in the last few days of this trip. The last big thing on my sightseeing to-do list is visiting Great Sand Dunes National Park in southeastern Colorado. There isn’t really a town near the national park, so Andi and I figured we’d spend the day there on our way to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.

We left Red River, New Mexico early Monday morning and headed north toward Colorado. It was about a 1 1/2 drive north.

Andi has a “thing” about sand dunes, so I’m surprised I was able to convince him to go there. He produced many work events in Death Valley, California over the past 10 years which has resulted in PTSD re: sand. How bad can it really be, I wondered? He says very.

Great Sand Dunes National Park is an interesting geographical feature in south-central Colorado because of the gigantic sand dunes seemingly appearing out of nowhere in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range. These “hills of sand” are made by strong winds that blow across the desert. We could see the large sand formations as we drove closer to the park.

The big thing to do at Great Sand Dunes NP is to rent sand sleds to slide down the dunes. The national park doesn’t offer this service, but several businesses in nearby towns do. For $40, we rented two wooden sleds for the day (a little pricey, but when in Rome, right?) from the Oasis Store about 5 miles from the park’s visitor center.

Surprisingly, sand sledding is permitted anywhere within the national park. I suppose a person can’t do much damage sliding down the sand. We drove the RV to the closest dunes parking lot and made our way to the entrance of the dunes. Andi advised the three of us to only wear as little as possible out on the dunes — or at the very least clothing & accessories that we didn’t mind being covered in sand. I left my cell phone and watch in the RV; we only brought Andi’s phone to take a few photos.

We greeted several people leaving the dunes as we entered the main walkway & I was perplexed by the look on their faces. Were they having fun? I couldn’t tell. They looked exhausted. At the entrance to the dunes, we saw nothing but hills of sand. Groups of people were walking to and from the closest “big” hill and we could see a few people sledding in the distance.

As soon as we started walking through the sand to the dunes I understood why people looked the way they did — it was hard work! Like walking through a mile of think, loose sand on a beach. Surprisingly, there were people of all ages out there. Lots of people huffing and puffing under the strain of walking in the sand.

The closer we got to the first “big” dune, the more the wind picked up. Oh boy, did it hurt! Grains of sand violently whipped against our exposed faces, arms and legs as powerful wind gusts blew sand every whichaway. I felt sorry for all the dogs and babies out there who couldn’t protect themselves. Our family figured out that if we tucked ourselves under the peak of the sand dune were somewhat protected from the swath of sand blowing across the open area. The national park service warns that severe storms come up out of nowhere in this area of Colorado. You could feel that in the air as the sky darkened and strong winds seemingly came out of nowhere.

Still, we were having a glorious time at Great Sand Dunes NP. The four of us were laughing and in total awe of this place.

Now, it was time to start sledding! The first big dune looked like a good enough place to start — the idea (& excursion it’d take) to walk to a further away dune with less people seemed out of the question. Aden volunteered to go first. Andi started him out at the top of the dune and gave him a big push from behind, and — whee! He sailed down the sand to the bottom of the hill.

Now Aden had to climb back up to the top of the sand dune — oof. It was not easy and got your heart pumping for sure.

We had two boards for the four of us & took turns sledding down the dune. It was so fun! We were covered head to toe in sand. We spend about an hour, maybe less, sledding. Then, the four of us sat in the sand just below the top of the dune & people watched. One lady frantically paced by us telling her husband she thought she lost her cell phone. Yikes! I can’t imagine that you’d ever find it here. That’s why you don’t bring anything of value out here, Andi murmured under his breath. The dunes are unforgiving.

Some people had hiking sticks and looked like they were going for a trek across the sand. That would NOT be my idea of a good time. This national park was so different than any other we’ve experienced. There’s really one reason to come here — sand sledding. You could hike or camp, but it’s a harsh environment not for the faint of heart.

Covered in sand and somewhat exhausted after sledding, we decided to walk back to our RV. The people we saw walking into the dune entrance looked fresh faced & excited. We probably looked like we’d been through one of those prize machines where dollar bills swirl around and you try to catch as many as you can. Now I understood why the people we saw at the entrance earlier in the afternoon looked the way they did.

Great Sand Dunes NP was so much fun & definitely worth the visit. But, it might not be for everyone. It was hard work walking in the thick sand and very, very windy. Definitely not the place to bring anything of value — there’s absolutely no way to protect it from grains of sand whipping through the air.

The minute we got back to the RV, we stripped our clothes off. We had sand in ever crevice of our bodies. Andi and I decided we’d drive around the park a little bit, but there’s only a short distance along the main road you can go without a 4x4 vehicle.

The inside of the visitor center was closed due to pandemic restrictions, but there was a table set up outside the front door with a park ranger there answering questions. We grabbed Junior Ranger packets for the kids and quickly filled them out in exchange for a badge. I would have liked to spend more time in the visitor center learning more about the sand dunes and how they formed in the middle of south-central Colorado, but it wasn’t in the cards today. Not sure I’ll be able to convince Andi to come back to sand dunes again either - ha!

Most importantly, the four of us enjoyed our time at Great Sand Dunes National Park and took home some great memories. Since there there wasn’t much else to do here other than sand sledding, we left the park and drove north toward Mount Princeton Hot Springs.

Mount Princeton Hot Springs was recommended to us by a friend and seemed like the perfect place to go after the dunes to shower & relax. Sounds funny, but hot springs are one of our favorite places to stop in the RV because they typically have nice bathrooms/ showers where we can use as much water as we want. A luxury in RV living!

It took us about 1 1/2 hours to drive from Great Sand Dunes NP to the Mount Princeton area. Typically, there’s a nice campground near the hot springs, but unfortunately it was already closed for the season. We decided to use the hot springs and then continue on from there to find a place to stay tonight.

Mount Princeton Hot Springs weren’t cheap! It was over $100 a person to use the pools and springs and I can’t say I was overly impressed. There were three spring-fed pools and a hot springs river to soak ourselves in. During the summer, I think they also have a water slide area but that was closed during our visit in late September.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed soaking in the pools for an hour and then took advantage of the showers in the locker rooms. They were communal showers which freaked out the kids. We laughed afterwards because Andi said he made Aden strip naked in the shower & Aden was completely embarrassed in front of the other men in the locker room. Tory and I showered while wearing our swimming suits and I think she was mortified enough doing that. Our biggest annoyance was that the showers were timed and kept shutting off after two minutes which made it impossible to wash our long hair.

After we were clean & dressed, the four of us hopped back in the RV to find a place to camp for the night. Salida, Colorado is one town that Andi and I have wanted to visit but hadn’t yet during our time in Colorado, so we decided to back-track a bit and go there. Andi secured us a RV reservation at Wilderness RV Park for the night. Salida is about 25 minutes from Mount Princeton Hot Springs.

We pulled into the RV park around 7:00pm. What a fun, adventurous day in south-central Colorado. Tomorrow, we’re excited to explore Salida.