Road Trip - Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes

As we headed East from Grand Canyon we could tell there would be a rough patch of driving, in other words, more desolate desert to drive through. The Painted Desert was kinda cool, but not really our style. Eventually we reached the Four Corners. I was not too excited to see the Four Corners. After all, it's just four states that happen to have their imaginary borders bump up to one another. We had to stop though, because Brooke told us it was the coolest thing ever (or something like that). It was, as advertised, four states that touch corners with one another, and the Navajo Nation decided that we owed them $3 per person to see it.

Anyway, after that was over we finished our drive to Mesa Verde National Park. I have to admit that I was not very excited about that stop, but it was on the way and it split up the drive nicely between Grand Canyon and Great Sand Dunes. I was surprised, however, to find out that the park is actually really cool. The landscape is beautiful, the views are great, and (as much as I hate to admit it) the history is cool. We were able to check out one of the largest and most intact cave dwellings (Spruce Tree House) on a little self-guided tour and that was really cool.

These things were built in the late 1100's, which makes them even more amazing. The Anasazi people would farm the mesas above and climb up and down to their cliff dwellings that could remain cool in the hot summer and be warmed easily by fire in the cold winter. They are really pretty amazing, something that was definitely cool to check out indeed.

We stayed one night there before moving on to Great Sand Dunes National Park for a night. As we crossed the Continental Divide in the Fit (now named Sally, because we figured you can't drive a car for three months and live out of it if it doesn't have a name) Lacey spotted some clouds in the distance. She asked if the clouds were fog, smoke from a fire, or what. She also joked that maybe it was a sand storm at the park. We had a good laugh, until we realized that the joke was right and that the 40+ mph winds with 70 mph gusts were kicking up so much sand in the valley East of the park that the whole area was shrouded in a painful and disgusting cloud of flying sand. As we drove through I felt like I was in one of those cheesy movies where someone gets caught in a storm in the Sahara and can't find their way out. The bad thing, though, was that we had no oasis to find at the end, only a very windy campsite. 

We set up the tent (which was difficult), made dinner (which was difficult) and ate it in the car (which, surprisingly, was difficult). We did find one nice respite from the wind though in the mountains near the park. There we drove a few miles on a dirt road, hiked a half mile to a small crevasse, and waded through some 35 degree water to see a very (very) cool little waterfall.

We woke up the next morning and headed to the dunes for a little walk. The wind was already picking up, but walking on the sand dunes was pretty cool. I felt like a little kid jumping and rolling down the dunes and would love to go back some day and spend a (not so windy) night sleeping on them. For this trip, though, one walk was enough.

 Anyway, that was a long post, but a lot to cover. Now, on to Denver and then Rocky Mountain NP. Until next time!