St. George Vacation 2007 - Day 1

We left Thursday morning, July 26th, at 5 a.m. The ETD was 4:00 a.m. MST, but I awoke at 3:30 a.m. and suddenly realized in a bit of a shock that I had forgotten to put the car top carrier on the van. So as quietly as possible, I was out in the driveway at 3:35 putting the carrier on top. That combined with loading the car put us about an hour late in leaving. But no worries! We had a safe and enjoyable trip the first leg. We arrived in Walsenburg for breakfast about 9:00 a.m. We enjoyed a Carl's, Jr. breakfast (similar to Hardees in the South) and then headed to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. It's been a long time dream of mine to visit this place in the middle of the San Luis Valley nestled up against the Sangre de Christo Mountains. There are many sights in Colorado that I haven't seen yet even though they're in my home state. It is an incredible attraction, desert sand dunes in the middle of Colorado. Nobody is yet sure as to how exactly they were formed. We headed to the top (a 650 foot elevation gain about 2 miles from the base in deep, soft sand -- very difficult hiking!), with Ivy, Jami and Monk making it with me. Noel and Dennae felt like they should stay down at the half way point in case one of us fell backward and rolled all the way back down in need of help! Yeah right! Anyway, with the wind whipping, sand pelting our legs and lightning flashing all around us, we made it safely up and down. Noel put together a picnic lunch while the kids played in Medano Creek at the base of the dunes. Then on the way out of the park we stopped at Zapata Falls, a bitterly cold snow melt stream with some beautiful waterfalls. Noel and I have always loved waterfalls. We hope to pass that love on to our kids. They made the short hike and enjoyed the freezing wade through the stream up to the falls. Jami and Ivy are rock climbers so they got the closest. Got to do some bird watching on the short hike as well. We ended the first day at a Days Inn in Alamosa; the kids went swimming at a local water park. Taco Bell and Long John Silvers for dinner. What a blessing...kind of...well, not really at all. ;-)

Don't forget to look at the pictures at the bottom of the blog. Hope you are doing well.

For Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.