Amazing Journey Part 4

From the Grand canyon, we drove through Painted Desert, Monument Valley (where we saw 1,000 ft high funky rock formations jutting out of the desert sand), 4 corners, and up into the mountains of Colorado. It was really an amazing drive. We stayed overnight in Pagosa Springs and got up nice and early to hit our first hiking destination - Treasure Falls.

10 years ago, Andrew and I stumbled upon this well-maintained 3/4 mile hike up to Treasure Falls. When you start the hike, you can't even see the Falls. As you get closer to the top, you start to hear them and then finally, you round a corner and see this -

Isn't it just gorgeous! We got to see it just as the sun was coming up over the mountain. We all just stood there and silently "wowed" for a while. After we had our fill of looking at the falls, we decided to walk a bit further onto a smaller trail where we found our first mounds of snow. Andrew was leading the crew and I was at the back making sure we didn't lose anyone when I got the novel little idea to send one of our sweet children up to their Daddy with a hand full of snow to put down his shirt. His surprised little yelp kinda shattered the peacefulness of the morning, but I think it was worth it :).

Did you know that the tallest Sand Dunes in North America are in Colorado?? Nestled in between 2 mountain ranges are the Great Sand Dunes. Our kids really enjoyed playing in Medano Creek - you have to cross this creek to get to the dunes and the water is FREEZING. After a while, you get used to it and it's a lot of fun. Because the snow melt water is rushing so quickly from the nearby mountain range, there is a very strong current. After crossing the creek, all you see is this -
Those dunes might not look big, but they are 750 feet tall! They only look small because they're standing in front of a 13 thousand foot tall mountain. Looking at them was incredible and climbing them was exhausting! We definitely didn't make it up the highest peak, but the kids had a ball climbing up and running/rolling down. I'm pretty sure we brought a couple feet of those dunes into the van with us.

For the next 5 days, our family stayed in Manitou Springs - a rugged little town just outside Colorado Springs that probably saw its heyday in the 50/60's - I kid you not, on our way in, Andrew and I saw a hotel sign that read "Air Conditioning & Color TV." Nonetheless, we really enjoyed our stay there. We had a nice 2 bedroom cabin where we could stretch out a little more and a full kitchen so I could cook again. I know it may sound crazy that I was excited about cooking again, but after 1 1/2 wks of eating out, I was really ready to cook some nutritious meals for my family. Plus, Manitou Springs is a fantastic location for so many of the things we wanted to do and see.