SOUTHERN COLORADO – THE GREAT SAND DUNES

Jett’s Wild Flight: The Great Sand Dunes National Park

By: Jett Lillie, 7/20/23

My dad and I woke up early in Alamosa, CO to go sledding and sandboarding on the great sand dunes! Once we arrived in the Great Sand Dunes National Park, we hiked about a 3/4 of a mile to the dune field and located a good dune to sled/board down!

I sledded down the dunes and had a great time sledding until I wanted to try the sand board.

A sandboard is pretty much just like a snow board, but for sand, so it’s easier. I strapped up and sled down the hot sand of the great sand dunes.

I had the best time ever!

We went back to the campground with some souvenirs in our hair and in or socks! (AKA: lots of sand! Ha!) So, we jumped into the KOA pool at our campground and took a “shower!” We had a sandy blast of fun sledding down the dunes!!!!!!😁

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: The Great Sand Dunes National Park

By: Jaycie Lillie, 7/20/23

Hehe, so it starts early in the morning before the sun has risen, (Said dramatically). Just kidding! Mama and I slept in while Jett woke up early to sled down the sand dunes with Daddy. At lunch is when they joined us, and we went to the visitor center all together. (They got sandy, but you must read Jett’s blog to hear about that. Apparently, it’s now Jett’s favorite national park.)

It was very sandy and dry inside the park. When the wind picked up you could see all the sand blowing. I like green, but it was browner here.

I’m just saying… not my favorite Biome. It was a desert in between 2 mountain ranges. No animals, right? Well, you are wrong! There is water right beside this desert! The Great Sand Dunes National Park contains the surrounding forests and meadows as well as the dune field. So, in the park many animals live here. Surprisingly, elk, deer, squirrels, and black bears live here! But these animals don’t live in the dunes. They live in the nearby forests. Here are some Mule Deer we saw:

So, what animals live in the dunes? Great question!! The Kangaroo rat lives in the dunes all year and is the only animal who can survive the desert dunes in winter. Pikas are in the rabbit family and live in the dune fields as well. There are also many insects that live in the sand including one Jett found when sledding – the Ten-lined June Bug!

So yo might be asking...How did the dunes get here? Well, scientists believe the sand was blown from nearby mountains and sediment flowed in from streams and the high winds between these mountain ranges whipped the sand into dunes at the base of the Sangre De Cristo mountains. Nothing too crazy! (Haha!) We learned all this information from the park film, Jr Ranger booklets, and the ranger talk which was awesome!

The Park Ranger demonstrated throwing a spear using an atlatl. An atlatl is small spear throwing mechanism the Native Americans engineered using wood, bone, & animal hide. We had to make a hard decision choosing between the badge or a patch.

Jett and I both chose the badges because we could buy a similar patch in the store. After we earned our badge, we stamped the back of the wooden badges and our passports.

After that, we left the visitor center. "Let’s go on a hike!” we thought. Nope! When we arrived at the trailhead it was fine. We started about 10 yards into the nature trail when the biting flies and mosquitos started attacking us! Even after dousing our arms and legs in bug spray, they still bit us! We just left and drove to a different location for a hike.

We headed into the Zapata Falls National Recreation Area which was just 10 minutes from the Great Sand Dunes.

We sprayed bug spray again and put on our bug bracelets on. That helped a bit. The views of the dunes were pretty on our hike up.

But, then it started to rain. I ran back to the truck and the other 3 continued. They made it all the way to a slot canyon/cave with a waterfall called, Zapata Falls. They took photos and videos for me.

After they returned to the truck, we drove home to the camper. That was our “great day” at the Great Sand Dunes!