Bob’s friend told us about Great Sand Dunes National Park and suggested we camp there. The campground doesn’t accept reservations ahead of time. We had to just show up and had a free-for-all for finding an available site. A lot of the sites were small and not nearly large enough to fit out 16′x10′ tent (our friends fondly referred to our tent as “the palace”). We finally found one big enough for our tent and 2 other tents of our friends that joined us. Although, I’m pretty sure we actually found 3 sites and used them all.

The forecast was calling for rain and thunderstorms and for once the weatherman was correct. It would rain for a couple hours, then clear up long enough so we could start a fire to cook a meal. We made sure we got our fix of s’mores before the rain came back and smothered our fire. We also put peanut butter on our s’mores and it was a delicious twist.

We went to the dunes Saturday morning. The dunes are the tallest in North America and were more like a mountain range than plain ol’ dunes. In order to get to the dunes we had to cross a freezing cold stream. We took off our sneakers and socks and waded across to the dunes.

Climbing was incredibly difficult. We put in a lot of effort and received minimum progress because the sand absorbed most of our steps. Bob and I didn’t quite make it to the top (I blame Coda), but the views were still fantastic!

That evening was very cold. The temperatue dipped down to around 40 degrees and when you combine that with the rain, it was downright bone chilling. After a few rounds of cards with our friends, I was ready for bed. I put on as many layers as there are in seven layer bean dip. Then I hibernated in my sleeping bag with Bob and Coda. Yes, Coda snuggled into the sleeping bag with Bob and I.

We packed up a day early since there was a lot more rain to come. Luckily, the rain held off long enough that morning to let us pack our tent up. We stopped at Bishop castle on the way back home. This castle was built by a crazy guy that decided he wanted to build a castle with his own 2 hands. He spent 40 years collecting rocks from his property and building this castle. The steps were steep, the iron rails shook and I’m not entirely sure how stable it really was.

The castle’s owner is very anti-government. In fact, no “drunk taxpayers” were allowed on his property. He also decided that people don’t have to be 16 years old to drive. He thinks anybody of any age can drive because the constitution doesn’t say otherwise. At least his insanity comes out in the form of a creative castle!