Day Eight: Sand Boarding and an Athletic Injury

We slept in until 9:00am. Ahhhh … it felt good. We picked up sand boards and sleds from Kristi’s Mountaineering store in Alamosa, and drove to Sand Dunes National Park. We stopped at the Visitor Center and learned about our most environmentally diverse National Park. Annelies earned another Junior Ranger badge.

We drove to 'Point of No Return', and hiked about ½ a mile to the tallest Sand Dunes within reach. Annelies was the first to go down. I’ll tell you, these sleds fly!

Paradis tried the sand board. You had to wax the boards each and every run. She said it was a lot different than snow, the balancing is different.

I decided to give the sled a try. As you know I’m no athlete. When I reached the bottom of the hill my sled stuck in the sand, and I went head first into the sand. I pulled my hamstring and declared an athletic injury! I stuck to taking photos after that. The best shot of me is from the top of the hill!

It was a lot of work walking up after each run; walking in sand is hard, but walking in sand up hill is tough. Scott made the most runs, using both the board and sled. He has sand in crevices he didn't realize he had!   

The girls even tried the old-fashion 'roll down the hill' approach.

We had a ton of fun, and are so glad we did this. All of us laughed a ton.

We walked back to the van and had a picnic lunch. The park is beautiful, you have the mountain ranges in the back of these huge sand dunes. Amazing.

We returned the boards, picked up a couple Redbox movies, and hit the road for Denver via the Scenic Drive. I love looking at snow capped mountains. Scott dreams about living in them someday.

We ended our night at a Holiday Inn Express (our new favorite 'cheap' hotel) in Denver, where we enjoyed Asian take-out. Great day in Colorado.

Day Eight: 308 miles (1,307 total); $34.94 on gas ($185.27 total); 0 states (5 total); $89.46 Lodging  ($1,099.88 total); $24.92 Souvenirs ($647.99 total); $0 Tourist Traps ($167.80 total); $4 Redbox ($8 total); 0 fights (0 total); 0 injuries (1 total)