Great Sand Dunes National Park 2024

After our final day at Mesa Verde, we drove to The Sunset Inn in Alamosa. They keep 4 cats there, so it's now the kids' favorite hotel. We weren't sure we'd see them since we arrived late, and they send them outside in the morning until after breakfast, but we got lucky. Around 8:30am I'd been searching for an ice machine to fill up our water bottles, and I saw a kitty pawing at the door asking to be let in. I couldn't resist. I let him in and got the kids to come out and see him before an employee sent him back outside. 

We followed the kitty out and saw two others climbing in and out of a little house next to the hotel. The small glass diamond window had been removed from just above the peephole, which is how the cats were getting in and out of the house. 

A few hours after leaving we got a call from the hotel asking if we were missing a stuffed animal. Tyler's Okie beanie boo had fallen out of the car on our drive out. They were kind enough to mail it back to us since Alamosa was out of our way on the drive home. It was also a spacious and comfortable room, and the price wasn't bad. I would happily stay there again.

After we checked out, we drove to the Zapata Falls hike. We hadn't realized we would have to get our feet wet to see the actual falls. Allison and Oscar didn't want to get wet, but Tyler and I forged ahead. I wasn't too concerned since I was wearing my tennis shoes and knew I'd be changing into sandals at the dunes, and Tyler was wearing sandals. It was worth it!

There are some great views of the sand dunes from the hike.

The cloud shadows looked neat as we drove down the hill back to the main road.

Once we got near the national park I took some photos of the mountains where we'd just been hiking. We also rented some sand sleds at a nearby convenience store. We were told the sand was a bit wet and the sledding might not work as well, but we'd come all that way and wanted to at least give it a try.

After entering the park we stopped at the visitor center where the kids picked up and started completing their Jr Ranger books. There are some beautiful views and a small interpretive hike just outside the visitor's center. Unfortunately clouds were obscuring the mountain peak behind the dunes.

I'd been told to bring old socks when you're actually on the dunes since it's too hot to be barefoot but hiking up the sand is harder with shoes or sandals. After walking across the dried up riverbed, we found a small hill with a bunch of kids sledding and had some success ourselves. Allison and I both struggled at first, going sideways and tumbling over at the end, but Tyler figured out how to use his hands to stay on course right away. Oscar picked up on it quickly too. 

We then decided to climb a larger dune so we could have a bigger sledding hill. In hindsight we should have stayed where we were since the dunes were very difficult to climb, and the sand shifts, so our sledding window on that particular dune didn't last long. We discovered if the sand was easy to sled on, it was difficult to climb. But if it was compact and easy to climb, it was difficult to sled on.

Here's Tyler going down the giant dune then getting stuck unable to climb back up.. He'd brought his coat even though it was getting pretty warm, so it was both challenging and he was overly hot.

Allison and I stayed on the small hill. I almost went the all the way down like Tyler, but I stopped myself. I didn't want both of us and both sleds stuck at the bottom.

After about 8 minutes it was clear Tyler wasn't making much progress climbing back on his own while carrying the sled, so Oscar went down to help him. Oscar carried both sleds back up so Tyler could just focus on climbing. It still took him awhile, but he made it back.

For a little bit longer we stuck to the smaller hill, but then the sand started getting difficult to sled down. Here's Tyler trying and inadvertently leaving the sled behind him.

We decided to finish up and just take one big sled down the hill. I successfully sled down with Tyler, though my feet weren't quite on the sled and the momentum burned giant holes in my socks. After a lot of non success, Allison and Oscar were able to come down too. I say "oh no" in this video because I hadn't realized my camera was 5X zoomed in, but thankfully I still got them in the video. 

We ate lunch at the cafe in the same place where we returned our sled. We wanted the Navajo Tacos, but they were out. They did have homemade nachos, though, which tasted really good.

We then returned to the visitor's center so the kids could finish their Jr Ranger badges. The clouds had cleared and I finally got my view of the peak behind the sand. 

Lovely!

I asked Oscar to get some nice shots of me with the view while the kids finished up their booklets.

The kids got sworn in as Jr rangers, earned their badges, and then we started our drive home. We enjoyed this beautiful view, picked up some Cold Stone ice cream in Pueblo, and make it back safe and sound.