When you open yourself up to life, Life opens up to you!: Great Sand Dunes National Park

May 3 - 6, 2021

With a vow to be back, we left South Dakota, my how I loved it there and what fun we had. Oh well, on to new adventures as that is what this is all about. We headed south making two overnight stops toward our next destination: The Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The first stop was at Cabela's Campground in Sydney, Nebraska, home of the International Headquarters of Cabela's. Those of you who are into camping, hunting, fishing, etc will know the name of this chain of stores. We have been to the one in PA and what a store it is. Besides everything one could want and didn't know they needed for exploring the great outdoors, there is a wildlife museum, shooting gallery, and restaurant. We expected similar in Sydney as again World Headquarters but we were quite disappointed. Just a big store, no extras, and the small cafe they had was closed. Jeesh!

But the campground itself was well laid out, level graveled sites with full hookups, clean facilities. There was a separate tenting section, large playground, and even a equestrian park with exercise ring. There was a nice walking trail and large park in front so we were happy. Relaxed, refreshed and hit the road in the morning.

Our next stop was Falcon Meadow in Falcon, Colorado, just outside Colorado Springs. Odd campground with sites stuck in seemingly helter skelter as it expanded. Clean, but odd, owners appeared to be super friendly, old hippies though not that old LOL As with a lot of campgrounds these days, quite a few that seem to have made a permanent stop. Onsite store, gas, propane and laundry facilies, true one stop shopping. Had some dirt trails in the back so got to get out and walk a bit. Interesting place to stop for a night. Not a whole lot to take pictures of.

The ride was through mostly flat lands with not a whole lot to see to the left. Except we we went through this one area where there had to be thousands of Turbines, they stretched out in all directions for miles as far as the eye could see. Right out of a SciFi movie!

Of course, the great Rockies stayed to the right of us which had us reminiscing our trip across as we made our way to Alamosa, Colorado where we stayed at the KOA by the same name. Nice campground as per typical of KOAs, though sites could have been a bit further apart in our opinion. The usual amenities: store, pool, cabins, outdoor games such as horseshoes, mini golf, etc but these were still not open due to COVID. The facilities clean with hot water and good pressure, aahh the important things in life. Staff helpful and friendly. We stayed a couple of days so as to explore.

The Great Sand Dunes National Park.

WOW, what a mind blowing experience. There in the middle of nowhere with snow covered mountains in the background, prairie in the front is this giant sand dune! The tallest sand dune in the county with peaks over 750 feet, another surreal feeling when there. We climbed a bit and sat watching many sand boarding (yep, snow boarding on sand). The fun was having to cross the Medano Creek which had just started running again with the warmer weather melting the snows of surrounding mountains. Crossing back over feels real good after hiking up a sand dune in the heat! Great trail across the road the takes one through forested areas which we also did. Would love to be there during the Sand Crane Migration but not this time. This is certainly somewhere to put on the bucket list, amazing, simply amazing.