Today was SO FREAKING COOL!
We woke up to rain but got up, ate breakfast, got ready, and made it to the visitor center right as they opened (9am). We did the park video and played with some of the interactive displays. Neat.
We then donned our rain jackets and warm weather gear (hat and gloves for me) and headed out to the dunes.
The dunes are PHENOMENAL. It has got to be one of the coolest places I've ever been. It's definitely going to make the top ten list of cool things I've seen during this trip. It will likely even be on the top 10 best parks list. I would definitely recommend coming here. It's SO DIFFERENT from any other park we've visited over the years. And regardless of your age, it's A LOT OF FUN to play in the sand!
And play we did...:P
I documented our location...
...and Bill documented our excellent adventure. :P
This one is making the wall...
It was raining, windy, and cold, but it was a great time. It totally felt like we were on another planet. When you're on the dunes, you see nothing but sand surrounding you in all directions. It's completely freaky and amazing.
After an hour and a half of climbing, running, and drawing in the sand, we headed back to the truck. Bill found a way to wash off our shoes. He's so clever. :)
Did I mention how HUGE these sand dunes are? See the little dot in the circle?...yeah, that's a person.
Oh, and if you ever want a killer workout, this is the place to do it.
This was the view from our campsite...not a bad place to wake up.
We would have loved to stay here longer, but time and the weather forecast (supposed to rain all weekend) were not conducive to that desire.
We left the park around lunchtime and headed north to our next destination: Cheyenne Mountain State Park. (Yes, Kerry...as in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex...which if you Google map it, is about 1500 feet from our campsite.) :)
The park is really, really nice. Full hook-ups and huge, level parking pads. The catch is that all of Colorado State Parks have a daily entrance fee IN ADDITION to their camping fee. Not a big deal, but kind of annoying considering some of the facilities (specifically laundry) were closed for the season. So let me get this straight - you now have limited services but unlike all the other parks we've been to, you don't reduce your fees for the limited services off-season ? Grrr....
Still, it's a nice park and is right in Colorado Springs so it's convenient to where we want to be - which is now near a laundromat as well as Pike's Peak (if we can make it before the snow does). There's a nice trail system too - great for mountain biking, but not good for the Boys (no dogs allowed). Grrr...grrr... (that was Merlin and Twister.) ;P
(Bill's Perspective)
Sand dunes was very cool. I liked playing there a lot. I bet in Spring / Summer when there is a nice stream running across the flats, it's really a hoot. Of course it's 8000 degrees then too so pick one...
I agree that Cheyenne Mountain State Park is expensive and annoying but the actual site is about as nice as we've been to and being at the base of Cheyenne Mountain has a certain charm about it as well. But for me, the trail system is really making our stay here worth it. They have about 20 miles of trails broken up over 16 different trail names. When we got in, we decided to head out for a little introduction to the trails. The beginning was very easy and kinda boring. It's tight and somewhat hilly but it's also basically single and a half track of groomed gravel. So you can't carry any speed or you slide right into the trees. So it's slow going at first. Then we came to a nice little section with smooth foot tall humps for catching some air. Fun, but inevitably followed by a 90 degree or tighter turn. Then it got a little rocky and the fun started. I don't know how far I rode because the mileage markers with the nested loops makes it hard to calculate but it was probably about 7 or 8 miles. I would have been back sooner but I experienced my first pinch flat (ever) and had to do a trail side repair. Glad it worked because I was a couple miles out and it was getting dark fast. Rating the trails is hard because there can be a 3 mile loop with only 2 technical sections. The loop is very easy but the technical sections are impossible. Does that still make it easy if you have to drag your bike over giant boulders for a couple minutes? Guess I need to work on my trail rating system. It was exercise and I was happy to have it right here beside us.
Here is the trail map... I don't know why links don't work on this thing.
http://parks.state.co.us/SiteCollectionImages/parks/Parks/CheyenneMountain/CMSPTrailMap.pdf
And here is a page with the descriptions of the trails which I haven't read yet. ;)
http://parks.state.co.us/Parks/CheyenneMountain/Trails/Pages/CheyenneMountainStateParkTrails.aspx
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