Great Sand Dunes

Next day we have a peaceful morning and do some washing before deciding to head out to check out Bonanza which the turn off is only a couple of miles up the road in Villa Grove. 

About 2 miles down the road it turns to gravel and we decide to give it a miss as it is a type of ghost town with a population of 9…..

 We check out the hot springs and decide we will come back later and end up driving to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which was some way back down towards Alamosa.

Eventually we find this and so join everyone paddling across the stream to the sand dunes, which are quite amazing situated at the foot of the Rockies in the middle of nowhere.  We start to go up the first hill but this is hard work and very hot on the feet!  Daryl makes it up but I only go so far before common sense kicks in!  A few pics and we drive around the campground there before heading back to camp.

And something from the Only in America album.........

Daryl chats up the camp guy (John) as there is a barn full of wrecks and covered cars and John agrees to take him down to have a closer look at the barn. 

A very nice charger and lots of mopars hiding in there, so Daryl was happy he got his fix and John turned out to be an interesting character.  John is half Indian & half Irish and served two tours in Vietnam, rode a horse for transport all his life until recently, having retired at the camp 11 years ago, he is now 73 and doing well.

A pic of our camp site with the Rockies in the background.

We asked the kids what all the crosses were at the camp - it was their pets.......