YoAle Adventure Begins. The Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

By the time I had picked up Ale in Albuquerque, I had driven a total of 3,900 miles! And as much as I was loving the southern heat, I was ready to drive up north. Neither Ale or I have really explored Colorado, and so we were pretty pumped. We started off our road trip by blasting Carly Rae Jepsen and headed first to Santa Fe for some brunch at Pantry Kitchen and then further north of I-25 to the Great Sand Dunes.

As soon as we were about 10 miles over the Colorado boarder, the terrain totally changed and we became surrounded by mountains. Some even had snow on them! By the time we were almost 30 miles away from the Great Sand Dunes, you could already see them, like a Sahara Desert in the middle of a circular mountain range. It was very clear as to why they are called the GREAT Sand Dunes. They were huge! Check out more of our pictures here!

The Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

We lucked out and scored one of the last few campsites inside the park, set up our humble abode, and put on our hiking gear. We were ready to conquer the dunes! We rented a sled, since you know, that’s what you do when you go to a desert, and then began our trek. Initially, we wanted to go to the highest dune, where we saw people walking around like little ants on a hill. It became increasingly tiring to walk in the sand after a couple sled runs and strolls along the crests of the lower dunes, so we just took a ton of pictures and ate a rice crispy treat. Like champs!

Ale sledding down the Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

That night, we had a gourmet meal of hot dogs, beans and s’mores. And since you know how much Ale and I love to camp, once it started to drizzle, we battened down the hatches (a.k.a. went into the tent) and called it a night.

Oh yeah, explanation for why there was a Sahara Desert in the middle of Colorado? I’m not totally sure yet… The pamphlet talked about water and wind, some rocks were involved, but it was pretty vague.