San Luis State Wildlife Area (by Asher)

San Luis State Wildlife Area was an old State Park that was changed into a wildlife area. It's not being maintained anymore but the campground was still open. It's first come, first served, and it's a great place. Plus, it's super close to Great Sand Dunes NP.

It's so close, we got a 50 Amp site, there's a great view towards the dunes, there wasn't a fire burn ban, and we were close to Blanca peak (the fourth highest mountain in the Rockies). What's not to like? Well perhaps the fact that we didn't have laundry or water and that we were going to a national park where the main thing is sand. In fact, there isn't a scenic drive there! You just park in the great sand dunes parking lot and walk to the sand dunes.

The accessible part is pretty much all sand dunes

 Walking in sand is tiring. And it's a .3 mile walk across sand just to get to the start of the dunes.

The day we got to San Luis Wilderness Area we went to Great Sand Dunes NP. There was one thing that we didn't know but soon found out. The wind. Have you ever been to the beach on a really windy day? This was probably at least two times worse then that. The wind blew sand along the ground stinging your legs. Even if I went behind a dune, sand-wind would blow over the top of the dune and other dunes would funnel sand-wind around it.

We only went to the very first dune that day. After we were back in the parking lot and out of the wind I told mom that "I think this is the first time since we left the parking lot that I'm out of the sand-wind." Our first visit to Great Sand Dunes NP definitely lessened what I felt about going back.

Afterwards, we looked at the wind speeds for the week. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday weren't supposed to be that windy.

Thursday, we went to the visitor center for a ranger talk at 10:30 am. It was the first ranger talk we went to and it was by far my favorite. It was called Buried Treasures, and it was on the things found in the dunes. Such as: Did you know camels used to live there?

A lot of the sand in the dunes is magnetic

Some of the rocks that the sand comes from

An army badge

The Lord's Prayer on the back of the badge

A meteorite

An 1806 half cent coin

A hollow piece of glass from a lightning strike

A Mountain Dew bottle: "It'll tickle your innards!"

This is really cool, what do you think this is?

Comment what you think it is

Then he brought out something called an adl-adl. Indians would use it to throw a spear farther to hunt bison.

After the ranger talk, we headed outside the park, four miles from the visitor center, to rent sand sleds.

We had a lot of fun sledding.

On Friday we went to another ranger talk and sledded more. Caleb went off exploring and when it was time to go I had to go find him 😞. I found him as he was coming back and I was so glad that he had water because I was thirsty and I had started to wheeze.

Before we went to the dunes on Saturday, we found out that that we had mice in the basement. We took a bunch of time trying to find them.

Dad came with us on Saturday and we got two sleds. We went to a ranger talk first.

Dad, Caleb, and I wanted to get to the top of High Dune. Star Dune is the tallest from the base, but High Dune is about half the distance to Star Dune and it's the tallest above sea level. When we started to the top we split up. Caleb and dad went one way that was longer but it followed a ridge up. I went a way that was a little steeper but shorter.

Dad and Caleb carried the sled and a water and I carried the backpack. I stopped for a few breaks (most of them while I was climbing up a dune or at the top of a dune). I made it to High Dune and even though there was a bunch of people there, (a boy scout troop) dad and Caleb were not among them, nor would they be there for probably 20 or so minutes. On my way up I was thinking that I would get there before them and have time to rest before they got there. That's exactly what happened.

One reason I wanted to get to the highest dune was so I could see past the first ridge. You might have noticed that in the first picture of the dunes you can only see the first ridge of dunes and none of the 30 or so square miles of dunes beyond that. We were able to see past the first ridge from the top of High Dune. We were on a ridge with a 400 foot slope on one side.

Caleb and dad had been there only a little bit before Caleb slid down the slope to go exploring. Dad, tired after hiking up, rested on the sled while I took some pictures. Then I tried sledding down the slope on the opposite side of the ridge from the steep side. I didn't do it on the steep side because it was too steep, but it was also because I didn't want to haul the sled all the way back up. I soon found out that the other side of the hill wasn't steep enough.

Then we started to walk back. We came to a hill that we would have to descend to get back. Dad, who had brought the sled to ride it down, put it down and sat on it with me sitting in front of him. We started to go down the dune and we got going pretty fast. That was my first sled ride down a big hill so I naturally put my feet out in front of me to slow us down. Next thing I knew we had flipped and were tumbling down. We both got sand everywhere. After a little bit I got up to walk down the rest of the hill. (I did not "storm off" as dad said, and I had already planned to go again later). I didn't see dad sledding the rest of the way down the hill but he said that he went backwards for a little bit then wiped out.

A little later we came to another good hill. On a sand sled if it starts turning and you can't get it back going straight you're going to wipe out. So we tried dad sitting on the seat holding the handles and me sitting in between dad's legs and using my arms to steer.

It worked really well and we got a good run. We got one more good run after that. We found the others but unfortunately Caleb wasn't there. Dad went back to the parking lot to find him. (Dad did find Caleb but he stayed there with him).

Jordan liked to stand on the sled and use it as a sandboard. I went a few times on one of the sleds, but because I had hiked up to High Dune, my legs were really tired.

Caleb wandering off at the bottom of the hill

View of the dunes past the first ridge

That night we watched the movie Cars 3.