The Last Park of the Trip: A National Park Odyssey Days 43-44

Great SandDunes National Park to Rocky Mountain National Park

Josh packs the car which is parked just steps from our room.

It will surprise no one to learn that I’m a bit of a hotel snob.  I love me some high thread count sheets and kind of feel like a concierge lounge is a need rather than a want. Plop me down in a JW Marriott pretty much anywhere in the world and I’m a happy girl.  But this trip may have changed that just a bit.  It brought to light the glorious simplicity of the roadside motel. Why?  Because you can park right in front of the door of your room!!!!!  And when you’re unpacking and repacking your car every day or two for an entire summer, not having to schlep your luggage more than a few feet is HEAVEN!

(And yes, I know that there are people who never have to unpack their cars when they travel because they are avid RVers.  I am not those people.  I do not want to be responsible for washing my own towels or making my own bed while on vacation.  Now, if that RV were actually a Holland-America ship whisking me from exotic port to exotic port with a cabin boy in charge of my linens, sign me up.  I’m all about that kind of not having to unpack and repack. But I digress.)

In this picture you can see how the landscape at Great Sands Dunes goes from prairie grass to sand dunes to Colorado peaks.  Oh, and there's an elk, too.

On day 43 we packed the car—right outside our motel room door!—and then set out for the visitors’ center so that the kids could finish up their Junior Ranger booklets and earn their badges before we took off for our last park.  On our way into the park, we saw an elk in the distance, beautifully framed by the prairie grasses, the dunes, and the majestic mountains.

At the visitors’ center, the kids checked out the exhibits and finished some last-minute questions before being sworn in.  

Knox interacts with an exhibit that simulates the growth and change of a sand dune.

Kinley finishes up some pages in her Junior Ranger booklet.

Getting sworn in for the 22nd time on this trip!

From there, it was a 3 ½ hour drive to Denver where we had planned to meet up with Josh’s cousin, Beth and her family.  We couldn’t wait to see them and hold little Roman!  The drive was long, but the payoff was big—plenty of Roman snuggles!  Knox read him a book, and then Josh and I took turns reading to him.  He was very attentive and willing to listen.  And later, at dinner, he let me carry him all around the restaurant, Casa Bonita.

Todd Parr was a favorite author of both Knox and Kinley, and Roman seems to appreciate his talents, too!

Casa Bonita is not the kind of place we normally would have chosen, and Beth and Karsen certainly didn’t have it at the top of their lists.  In fact, it’s kind of corny.  The 52,000-square-foot facility seats 1,000 and entertains guests during dinner with puppet shows, a fire juggler, and a guy in a gorilla suit who dives off a 30-foot cliff into a pool below.  But we didn’t choose it for the food or for the atmosphere.  You see, Josh’s sister, Kelsey, was born in Denver.  In December of 1980, when Josh and his parents found out that a little baby girl was being placed up for adoption and could potentially join their family, they flew to Denver to meet her and bring her home.  And the day that she was placed in their arms for the first time, they celebrated with dinner at Casa Bonita.  Josh has great memories about that evening, and he wanted to share the experience with us.  And a memorable experience it was!  Plenty of cheesiness but also plenty of things to entertain a busy toddler while the rest of the group got to enjoy all-you-can-eat Mexican food.

Josh outside Casa Bonita where his family brought their new baby girl for dinner in 1980.

The decor at Casa Bonita is kind of over the top, but we still enjoyed it.  (From left, Karsen, Roman, Knox, Kinley, me, Josh, and Beth.)

The next morning, Karsen had to work, but Beth and Roman met us bright and early at our hotel in Longmont to join us on our visit to our 23^rd and final national park of the trip—Rocky Mountain National Park.  At the visitors’ center, Josh and the kids stamped their National Parks Passports, and Beth stamped Roman’s for the first time. 

Roman gets his first ever National Park stamp in his passport!

The rangers told us that one parking lot in the park was already full, so we drove to the park and ride lot.  It was already full, too, so we decided to try to park at a picnic area that was near the trail to Bierstadt Lake.  We found a spot and figured out how to take a horse trail that connected to the actual Bierstadt Lake Loop Trail.  The 5.1 mile roundtrip hike had some steep-ish sections, but it was a good choice for our group.  Beth carried Roman in a baby backpack, so the rest of us couldn’t complain about the climb since we weren’t carrying an extra human on our backs. 

Knox, Beth, and Roman on the trail

Ready for adventure!

It was the perfect time of year for wildflowers, and we saw lots of interesting varieties as we hiked.  I was desperate to see a pika, a little mammal that lives in the mountains and looks kind of like a tiny rabbit with smaller ears.  But despite keeping an eye out for one (and perhaps calling, “Here, pika pika,” off and on a few times), I had no luck.  Along the way we did see a group of park interns who were hard at work on trail maintenance, but otherwise the trail was relatively empty. The view at the end was lovely, and we enjoyed watching Roman explore his surroundings when he got out of the backpack.  The lake was calm and reflected the majesty of the surrounding snow-covered peaks.

Lovely Rocky Mountain wildflowers

The beginning of the trail took us along a beautiful mountain stream.

Lumberjacks (park interns) at work on trail maintenance.

The beautiful Bierstadt Lake was our destination!

Knox and Roman explore the lake.

Josh shows Roman a duck hiding in the reeds.

Group selfie at the lake

Back at the visitors’ center, the kids got sworn in as Junior Rangers, and then we grabbed something to eat in Estes Park at Smokin’ Dave’s Barbecue before heading back to our hotel in Longmont.  One day certainly isn’t enough to completely explore Rocky Mountain National Park, so we’ll have to make a return trip someday.  Getting to introduce Roman to the joys of collecting National Parks passport stamps and share a part of our journey with family that we love made this park particularly special.  It might have been our last park of the trip, but it certainly won’t be the last stamp in our passports.

Junior Ranger badge number 23!

Our 23rd National Park of the trip!

Things I Learned at Great Sand Dunes: A National Park Odyssey Day 42

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Listen to our podcast about this park here!

Park number 22!

We made it to the Great Sand Dunes lodge so late that Kinley, Knox and I had a hard time getting moving, even after waking up late.  Josh, on the other hand, went to the visitors’ center, got Junior Ranger booklets, and researched sled rentals and dune trails all while the kids and I slept.  Once I finally got up and going, here are the things I learned.

We look so optimistic here at the beginning of our trek.  Little did I know....

*Planning activities for the day, every day, for forty-something days is hard.

*When you’re struggling to make a plan, having everyone list the one thing they want to do helps.

*When you almost never have a real fight, it freaks your kids out when you do.

*Josh is far more quick to say he’s sorry and be ready to move on than I am.  I need significantly more time (and possibly time alone) before I’m ready to get over an argument.

*When Josh and I are really angry with each other, I can see my kids taking on the roles that my sister and I took on as children when our parents fought.  Knox is like Gennifer who just wanted to make peace, and Kinley is like I was, just trying to lay low (and convince my sibling to lay low) until it all blows over.

*Josh doesn’t like hot springs.  I don’t like climbing sand dunes.

*Brazilians in Natal have the whole dune thing figured out.  You ride a dune buggy most of the time, and when you do sled down, the rental dude hauls the sled back up the hill for you on a rope.  And if you make a fool out of yourself and fall just ten feet from your starting point, the rental dude takes pity on you and gets on the sled with you to make it go down the hill the right way.

*If I ever visit Great Sand Dunes National Park again, I’m bringing a lawn chair and a book.  I’ll sit and read with my feet in Medano Creek while everyone else gets a workout sinking ankle-deep in sand with every step as they try to climb the 700 foot High Dune.  Did I mention that you start climbing at an elevation of 8,170 feet so those 700 feet feel even tougher?

*When you’re really struggling, you use your tried-and-true method of making yourself feel better – singing show tunes in your head.  And it just so happens that there is a show tune from Aladdin the Musical that mentions sand dunes!  And when even that doesn’t help, you’re in bad shape.

I'm singing show tunes in my head here.  It's not helping.

*In the midst of the climb with a good 200 feet or more left to go, when you are alternating between complaining in your head about how hard this is and giving yourself a pep talk to keep going, you sometimes have a moment of clarity.  You are a grown up.  You don’t have to do this.  This is not a loop trail.  The family will have to come back this same way to get down, and you can plop down right where you are on the ridge of this beastly dune and wait.  

*While you’re sitting there waiting for your family and the wind picks up and starts pummeling you with tiny grains of sand that feel like microscopic arrows being fired at you from point blank range and so you try to put a positive spin on it and think of it as a free exfoliation treatment but then you get just more irritated at the whole situation, you should just hike back down.  You don’t need to worry about your family not knowing where you are.  It’s not quicksand.  It’s not like they’ll think you got swallowed up by the angry sand that hates you.  They’ll figure it out.

*Trying to write a message to your family in the dry dune sand so that they know where you went and don’t worry about you does not work.

*Watching people less than half your age huff and puff their way up does make you feel slightly better.

*Watching people less than half your age scurry up the dunes with no problem whatsoever while carrying a snowboard and then try snowboarding down the dune only to take an epic tumble to the bottom makes you feel WAY better.

Josh and Knox celebrate making it to the top.  Not pictured : Me being miserable several hundred feet below.

*Having another moment of clarity while you sit there thinking about how your kids want to do this whole thing again later in the day only this time hauling rented wooden sleds to the top so that you can all slide down and get sand in your private places and then realizing again that you’re a grown up and you don’t have to do this is a really good thing.

Kinley and Knox prepare to haul their rented sleds back up the dunes later in the day.

Kinley and Knox sled down the dunes.

Josh takes a turn with Knox.  I'm still not sad that I missed this.

*Getting up the dune is only your first problem.  Going down is a different kind of hard.

That's me in the red shirt.  Far ahead of the rest of the family.  Ready to be done with sand dunes.

*Eating lunch at a place with ten varieties of homemade pies and watching the pie lady bring out even more freshly-baked confections as you eat your lunch helps your mood considerably.

*It’s way easier to be nice and forgiving over a big slice of coconut cream pie.

*It takes Knox a long time to get all the unwanted mayonnaise off of a BLT, but when he does, he can eat the whole thing.

*Staying behind at the motel to nap and blog while the rest of the family sleds down the dunes is an ok thing to do.

*If you wear a hot pink shirt and red shoes sitting outside near a bank of hummingbird feeders, you’re going to get up close and personal with lots of curious hummingbirds who think you might be lunch.

Just one of the ten or so hummingbird feeders behind our hotel that attracted swarms of hummingbirds all day.

*Getting a picture of a hummingbird while it’s dive-bombing you is hard.

*Having crappy wifi is actually worse than having no wifi.  You keep getting your hopes up only to watch the little circular “loading” symbol over and over and over. 

*When your family returns from sledding on the dunes with tiny grains of sand seemingly permanently embedded in every single orifice of their bodies, you do not regret staying at the motel one little bit.

Sand.  Everywhere.

*Josh Boyd does not, in fact, hate all hot springs.  Only the naked ones, apparently.

The water was so pleasant!

*Sand Dunes Recreation is a great place to go from 9:00-10:00 at night.  The 98° spring-fed pool has two diving boards and plenty of room for family swimming.  Plus, that late at night you get in for half price.  And the 107° pool is nice for a brief dip, too.

*Blogging makes me feel better and helps me to look at myself and my circumstances more objectively.

*I’m grateful for readers like you.  You’re cheaper than therapy.