Memorial Day Weekend

Our trip down to the Great Sand Dunes was a ton of fun! 

Saturday after Michael was done with work, we took off down to Pueblo and stayed the night there.  Sunday morning we woke up early and hit the road.  The terrain down south is totally different than what we are used to up here.  Its all scrub brush and desert looking grass.

As we got closer to the Sand Dunes, you could start to see them in the distance.  They looked really small against the mountains from so far away.

We had beautiful clear blue skies, with just a couple clouds.

Almost to the top...it seemed that everytime we got to what we thought was the top, we would have to go further.

The view was well worth the 2-ish mile hike uphill, in sand to the top.  It was definetly a work out and a lot of breaks were needed!  I realized halfway up that it wasn't too smart of us to wear flip flops because the sand got pretty hot!

The river way down below...where we started from.

Our hike back down was much easier and a lot quicker!  At the bottom we were able to cool off our feet in the river formed by runoff from the mountains...it felt really good, but boy was it cold!

From the Sand Dunes we headed up a gravel road a little ways into the mountains to check out Zapata Falls.  I think the water here was even colder than Lake Superior, and very clear.

We then decided to head further West about 2 hours to Pagosa Springs.  Michael had been wanted to go there since we moved out...we finally made it. 

A waterfall we came across on our way to Pegosa Springs.

That night we went soak in the hot springs, it was pretty smelly...but it felt really good.  This place was pretty neat...they had many different springs at all different temperatures.  The hottest one was 112*, I put my toe in but that was as far as I got :)  The hottest one I was able to get into was 108*, and I have to say...it definetly made my sunburn sting!

We got to talking to a couple at the springs and they recommended that we take the long way home and go further West through Durango, if we didn't mind spending a few extra hours in the car.

We decided to head home the long way, Monday morning we woke up and hit the road again.  The drive was very scenic and took us on the Million Dollar Highway.  Michael said he saw something on TV one day that it is also one of the most dangerous roads in the US.  I can see why!  It was very curvy, narrow and right along the edge, sometimes with no guard rails.

There was a lot of beautiful scenery along the way, and I took a lot of pictures.

Once we got past Ouray (sp?), a cute little town nestled between the mountains, we saw an amazing view of the mnts in our rear view mirror.  We found a road to pull off on so I could stop and take some pictures.  I had to take a couple pictures to crop together to get the whole range.  I could've sat there and stared for hours, but we decided we better get back on the road so we could get home at a decent time.

I could post a ton more pictures...but this is enough for one post I think.  Overall that weekend I took 450 pictures...not to just sort through them all!