Great Sand Dunes National Park, Alamosa, Colorado

As we continue to work our way through the National Parks, stopping at The Great Sand Dunes was an easy choice as we slowly make our way south towards Phoenix. The sand dunes are 750 feet tall and cover over 30 square miles. Our first day at the park was windy, like sandblast the top few layers of skin off anything exposed windy. Danelle made it about 100 yards before heading back to the car. I decided it was a good time to climb to the top of the dunes for a better view. 40 minutes of climbing up the 750 feet was more work than you would expect, especially with the base of the dunes at 7500 feet. We took a break from the sandblaster and decided to visit a local alligator farm. The farm has a large collection of animals that are mostly all rescues. They have several huge alligators and even some that are movie stars. One of their alligators is the one from the movie Happy Gilmore. After a good day of rest, we went back to the dunes to try out sandboarding and sand sledding. We quickly came to the conclusion that ski lifts are a miracle. After maybe 8 runs down the hill, and 8 long hikes back up the hill, we called it day and headed back to town.