Day 13, September 1, 2015
I was the last one awake this morning—Joe was up early, and
it wasn’t until I heard Naama and Ben outside that I finally got up—it was
already 9 a.m.! It got COLD last night—we needed an extra blanket, and Joe put
the heater on before I got out of bed. It was 45 degrees outside and 55 degrees
inside before that! But that’s why we came up here—to get away from the heat.
It actually warmed up quite comfortably an hour or so later.
Joe was making biscuits before the rest of us were up and
moving, so once again we at inside Sam—this time biscuits, scrambled eggs, and
coffee/tea/milk. Naama was really quite enamoured of the RV by the end of our
visit, but rather than agree to come home with us, she suggested that “RVs are
for sharing,” which is a 3-year-old code which was very obvious to all of us.
We cleaned up from breakfast, and then went for a walk to the end of the
campground to the creek. It is really quite lovely, and as Joe said, the kind
of place where, between the ages of 7 and 17, you couldn’t have kept him out of
it! But finally it was time for Joe and I to leave and start heading east again.
Ben, Miriam, Naama and Yael are lucky enough to not have to be home (in Denver)
until about a week from now.
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| Reservoir |
So we all hugged goodbye, and Joe and I headed back up the
15 miles of unpaved road. The drive seemed a little faster this time. Our
ultimate goal for today was Great Sand Dunes National Park—we skipped seeing
the Black Canyon of the Gunnison so that we could spend the time with our
friends instead, and it was WELL worth it! I had gone over the map with both
Ben and Miriam. There were three possible routes to take, but one turned off
before the town of Gunnison. We felt we ought to buy gas before heading over
more mountain roads, so we decided not to backtrack and headed east on US 50.
We stopped at Curecanti National Recreation Area for lunch—it is a beautiful
reservoir which goes on for miles, and we drove along its length after
lunch. US 50 also took us over the
Continental Divide at Monarch Pass, which is 11,312 feet. We stopped at the
top, where there was a souvenir shop and a tramway to the top of the mountain.
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| It's all downhill from here! |
After that we drove as quickly as we could south on US 285
and CO 17 (one of the emptiest roads we’ve traveled recently) until we reached
the county road east toward Great Sand Dunes. We could see them for a quite a
while, at the foot of the Sangre de Christo Mountains. We could also see what
looked like a huge rainstorm over the mountains to the west of us as we drove
through the valley. By the time we got to the park itself,  |
| View at the Continental Divide |
the national park at 7:15, not long before the red of the sunset came through the rainstorm to the west.
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| Sand Dunes in the distance, at Dusk |
Now we’re camped with a great view of the Great Sand Dunes.
The campground is surprisingly full (although not completely), and the rain
finally arrived here, although it’s not too heavy. We are hoping to get an early start tomorrow
and explore the park for a while before continuing on our way. We had sporadic
cell service today, and of course absolutely none at Big Cimarron Campground
last night, so it will be another day before I get this blog caught up on line.
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| Storm in the Distance |
1 comment:
Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.
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