Back to bullet points for time saving!
- Long driving day from Amarillo through part of New Mexico and into Colorado.
- Stopped for some Mexican food where the waiter kept teasing Zadie. (“You wanted the cheeseburger, right?”)
- Restocked at Walmart before the park.
- While Ruth was driving, phones beeped with an “Imminent Threat Alert” about a dust storm warning that we should prepare for a sudden drop to zero visibility. Yikes! Thankfully it wasn’t that bad, though our car still shows the aftermath of the dust storm.
- Got to visitor center right before they closed. They warned of lighting earlier (very dangerous up on the dunes), and it was still sprinkling. That rain made the sledding decision for us - you can rent sleds for the dunes, but it doesn’t really work when wet.
- By the time they closed, the sprinkling had stopped and we set up camp and made dinner.
- Headed to the dunes for sunset and instantly realized how hard it was going to be to walk up a sand dune! Whew!
- We ended up taking it piece by piece and got way higher than I expected we would’ve. Zadie was especially determined after some initial doubts, and Ruth encouraged her the whole way. Great sister teamwork.
- Came down before it got too dark and ended up with so much sand in our shoes that we held a contest to see who had the most. Zadie won by a mile!
- Went back to camp and stayed up late for stargazing since this was a dark sky park.
- Laughed about how we couldn’t find our favorite constellation from when the girls were younger and had a toy projecting stars onto their bedroom ceilings. Where is pencil doggie?! [Update: We saw a constellation chart later and realized that pencil doggie is Ursa Major, AKA one of the most well-known constellations ever. 🤦♀️]
