Four States in One Day

So...we could have easily made it back to Texas...and to my mom's house by the end of this next day of our adventure.  However, we had a few more stops we were determined to make before making it to our final destination.

We woke up early to make the short drive to...

We did not have a lot of time but we had passed up this park on 3 other occasions so we determined to make this stop.  We woke up early and arrived before the visitor center opened.  We also printed the junior ranger booklet off while at the hotel.  We were set to make it to the main attraction to this park before moving on...not the best way to go to a national park but we still had a lot of miles on the road today!

My first thought when we discussed this stop was to not make a big deal about it...it was just a bunch of sand after all.  However, it turns out the park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising about 750 feet from the floor of the San Luis Valley on the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range, covering about 19,000 acres.  When you look at the pictures we are posting, you can see that the park is lot more than just sand.  It would have been nice to see some more of the park...maybe we will need to make another stop one day.

We came during the snow melt season...there was a running stream between the parking lot and the dunes.  It was not very deep but very powerful.  Little Miss would have floated away had we let her walk across.  The water was also VERY cold...it was snow melt after all!

The rocks in the stream were so beautiful and colorful!

Kangaroo rat tracks!

We made it about half way up the highest dune before realizing that we would not make it back to the van in time to keep up our schedule... definitely needs another visit!  

So we ran back to the van...through that COLD water...and made it to the visitor center just as they were opening the doors.  We explained that we had indeed visited the park before the opening and needed to move on down the road.  The park ranger was a little skeptical until she actually saw that the children had very complete answers to the questions and completed the ENTIRE booklet.  It also helped to show her that we had an interest in other national parks for the day.

We did happen upon an interesting (but quick) side stop as we were leaving Colorado.  Yes...it was a geocache but I am glad we stopped for the history lesson as well.  We had found the Ludlow Massacre site.  This was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families on April 20, 1914.  I do not know a lot of details and I am sure there is another part of the story...not going to go political on this one...but it is sad to think at least two dozen people, including miners' wives and children, were killed over a mining dispute!  So sad...and I am glad we were able to stop and remember even the ugly side to our history.

This was not planned, so we were quickly zooming down the road again heading into New Mexico.  Not a lot to see here this trip...we needed to cross the Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma by the end of the night.  We found a park with life size dinosaurs for a quick stop and then on to Texas!

Serious about my chicken fried steak!

It was good to cross over into Texas once again...we were there by mid-afternoon.  We then made our way toward Lake Meredith NRA and Alibates Flint Quarry NM.  Unfortunately, the recreation area was closed by the time we got there and the quarry tours were canceled for a ranger training.  We were disappointed but another trip to the area sounds promising for the future!

We were starting to hear the pangs of hunger...a desire for chicken fried steak led us to The Texas Rose Steakhouse!  It was the perfect stop...they served us fresh rolls right out of the oven...still in the muffin tins!  I told the waitress it was good to be home!  She asked where we had been...when I told her she laughed...that is where I call home!  I thought it was so funny that we could pick out the Texans while in California, and now we were picking out the people from California in Texas!

A hop back in the van and we were zooming into Oklahoma.  Thankfully, it was just a short ride from this border to our hotel for the night.  We were greeted by Myrtle (and her brother Ya at Eeh) as we drove into town.