On the way back from our dune fun we stopped at the little creek at the base of the dunes. We wanted to let the kids get wet and have a lot of fun. This really was like going to the beach only we were in Colorado instead of Carolina. Both kids jumped right in and waded in the water. In most places the water was only ankle deep. The places it was deeper, was where people had dug holes to make a little pool for themselves. It was when Aaorn put on his swimming trunks that things got dirty.
Aaron decided first to act like an alligator in the creek. Caleb thought his was a whole lot of fun. Then Aaron decided to introduce Campbell to the art of Sugar Cookies. To do a proper sugar cookie, you must first get yourself wet head to toe. Once your are sufficiently wet, your run to the nearest dry sand and roll around in it. You must make sure you get sand over your entire body. You are then a sugar cookie. Both kids decided that this was a great game. Even Caleb wanted in on this one. All three of them were extremely sandy. In fact, I am still trying to get sand out of the kids' hair.
After the sand fun we decided to head back to the lodge to check in. Before we could get in the car though I required everyone to shower off in the showers that were provided. Little did I know that the water was not heated. The family was not pleased with the shower rule. We decided instead that we would just go into the changing rooms to change our clothes and wipe down with the towel. This worked much better. Although, Campbell was not pleased with the fact that the changing room did not have a roof.
We made our way back to the lodge. We got checked in and took proper showers. From our room we had a great view of the dunes. They also had hummingbird feeders outside the rooms, so we got to watch the hummingbirds. We then headed down to the restaurant for dinner. While there we noticed people coming in soaking wet. Apparently shortly after we left the dunes a huge rain storm blew in and everyone got soaked. Even the campers who were camped out near the dunes were coming in for some hot food.
We headed back to the dunes after dinner for a little more fun. We got there only to find that the water was much deeper and running a lot more quickly than when we had left. We decide to just do some drawing in the wet sand and take some pictures. We did not go back up the dunes. We then headed back to the lodge to sleep. On our way back we saw two very large bull elk. They were only about 50 yards from the road, so we got a great view of them. Everyone slept very well that night.
Sunday morning we were going on a 4 wheel tour of the dunes. We got up and headed down for breakfast. After some not so stellar service, we finally finished our breakfast and boarded the truck for our drive. It was a 4 wheel drive truck that had a bed on the back with seats. So our seating area was open air. Apparently the rain the night before had been really bad and they didn't know how far we would be able to go.
The trip started out fine. We saw a doe mule deer just laying amongst the trees. Campbell really enjoyed seeing her so close to us. Then we saw the cars that were stuck. Some campers who had been camping in the area got stuck in the rain. These cars, though, could be easliy pulled through the puddle they were stuck behind so we didn't think it could be that bad. That's when we realized how bad it could be.
We rounded a couple of corners and found a backhoe that was stuck in the sand/water mix that acted as quick sand. This didn't look good. We all got off the truck and walked down to the creek while the drived tried to see what he could do about the backhoe that was in our way. On our walk down to the creek we saw several areas where the ground had just been washed away. On our way back up the hill we found an entire picnic site that had been washed away. The area here was so washed away that the road no longer existed. The campers that were in the back country had no way of getting out of the area, even with 4 wheel drive. There simply was no place for them to drive. It was deteremined that a new road would have to be bulldozed to get them out.
Our 4 wheel drive excursion was over at that point. We all loaded back onto the truck and headed back to the restaurant. We decided to go ahead and drive home at that point. We drove through some very desolate farm country on our way back. We stopped and had lunch and ice cream in a very small town. Finally we hit the prettier mountainous area to drive through. The drive wasn't so bad for the kids and I as we slept most of the way. Aaron is the one who go to see all the landscape, good or bad.
This was one of our favorite trips ever. We had such a wonderful time. We plan to head back there again. Next time we are going to take sleds and will NOT be wearing flip flops!
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