Last night, Hannah and I flew to Denver. With the forecast all over the place for the next week, we ended up packing enough clothes for several weeks! In fact, we checked a separate bag so that I could bring clothes for a warmer Utah forecast next week and so that we could bring all of our hiking clothes. As of today, we have only worn the clothes we wore on the airplane...
We headed to the rental counter only to discover that I had made the reservation for the wrong date. I couldn't blame myself considering I've been juggling 20 balls lately. Thankfully, the rental car agent was merciful and didn't charge me a cancellation fee. I was worried when he told me that he didn't have a RAV 4 (which I had reserved...for next week), but he brought up a GMC Acadia or a BMW X3. You say the BMW is $60 cheaper to rent? Ummmm, yes please! Man, and I thought Reddi was slick... Hannah had to basically do the dance of the seven veils, prick some voodoo dolls and pray to the gods to finally get the Apple Car Play to work, but she persisted and did it!
The next morning, we were off early after a rather sad breakfast. I drove the four hours to Great Sand Dunes National Park. I had read on the park website that we should arrive earlier in the day to avoid the high winds, but every hour on the forecast was marked high winds. 25 mph it said, but when we pulled into the visitor center parking lot, it almost took the door off! We grabbed the park map which said that if we had 2-3 hours, we should climb the main dune.
How hard could it be? We've climbed the dunes at Sleeping Bear. Granted, this is the TALLEST dune on the American continent, but 700 feet? We drove out, found the parking lot and headed towards the dunes. Within 50 feet, we ran into a river and didn't want to get our feet wet. The sand was super soft, so we figured we would just climb the dune in bare feet. Granted, it was 48 degrees outside, but the rest of us was clothed warmly (still in the clothes from the airplane, I might add). We forded the stream and started walking across the sand to the dune. We quickly discovered that the soft sand didn't exist on the other side of the stream, but instead was full of little pebbles, but we trudged on.
Something I learned at Sleeping Bear is that dunes appear much closer than they actually are. The best way to actually judge the distance is by finding people who are on the dunes and see their relative size and distance. I could tell the dune was a ways away, but I had no idea. And honestly, the closer we got, the more it looked like something out of Prince of Persia or Lawrence of Arabia. It was HUGE!
We finally got to the first teeny tiny dune, and I told Hannah that I was stopping. Up to this point, I've done a good job of managing any altitude issues including breathing problems, and I just didn't want to push it. Plus, my feet were killing me. So I sat down, and Hannah started up the dune. As I sat there, the wind picked up, and it was going everything--in my eyes, in my mouth, down my shirt, everywhere. I had worn a light hoodie and a sweatshirt in addition to my beanie so I pulled those up and eventually tighten the string so that only my sunglasses were visible. I couldn't help but laugh at myself.
I kept my eyes on Hannah the entire time--she got about a third of the way up the dune and then turned back. I admired how far she had gotten, following the ridges as instructed, and it still took her a long while to get back to me. As Hannah tells me now, she wasn't sure we were going to make it back. But we did. And indeed, we had sand everywhere!
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| Can you see Hannah? |
Hannah completed her Junior Ranger packet and we were off. It was another 2.5 hours to Gunnison. Hannah fell asleep, and I just took in more of the beautiful scenery that had surrounded us the entire day. From snow-topped mountain peaks to lush green valleys, to grassland, to desert dunes, to overflowing streams, to three snow storms, it was an awe-inspiring drive the entire day. I wish I could've taken pictures but between the curvy roads and the wind, I didn't dare take my hands off the steering wheel. And having my favorite travel companion with me wasn't bad either. We laughed until we cried several times throughout the day. One of my favorite moments was when I told Hannah I couldn't go on. She rushed over to pick me up saying, "I can't carry the ring for you, Mr. Frodo, but I can carry YOU!"
We ate dinner at the Ol Miner Steakhouse in Gunnison where I could judge the authenticity of the restaurant by the fact that they offered "chicken" fried steak (and not lame-o "country" fried steak like they do in places where they don't understand). And Hannah decided to order an elk hamburger...which she loved!
And then we rushed to our hotel to wash our bodies of all the sand and catch Survivor. Yes, I am still haunted by "Wapner at 7". Even now as I type, freshly bathed, I'm still finding sand in various places on my body ;-)
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