Welcome to Colorado and Changing to Plan B

We were on the road early this morning, as it doesn't take long to break camp when boondocking. Not far down the road, we crossed the state line into our destination for the rest of the summer--colorful Colorado.

We are entering through the desert-like southern border where one must be on the look-out for free-range horses on the road?!? We were a little disappointed that we didn't see any wild stallions as we drove north.

It's always fun to get the first sight of Colorado's big mountains. This view of several 14,000+ foot peaks filled our windshield as we drew closer to our destination for the day.

We're boondocking again, so we pulled off the highway onto a sandy road that leads straight towards Blanca Peak--the Rocky Mountain's 4th highest summit at 14,351 feet. We are now on the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land that is known as Sacred White Shell Mountain, about 3 miles north of highway 160 on highway 150.

A half-mile down the sandy road we pulled into the first of three dirt parking lots where RVs are allowed to camp for free for up to 14 days. Free is a pretty good price in any situation, but it's really special with views of a 14er out our window.

Even though the parking lot was level, we found that it was anything but smooth. Our big motor home wheels heaved up and down over every bump as we got situated for the night.

We would highly recommend this place--as long as the winds are calm. It's a dust bowl here when the winds blow! Even on the windless day that we enjoyed, every car going down that sandy road kicked up a cloud of dirt. We are staying here because it's just 16 miles down the road from the Great Sand Dunes National Park. So we headed there a little before noon to hike the sand dunes. We waited in the long line at the park entrance, found a parking place outside the already-filled parking lot, and finally made our way into the sand.

As we walked a little further, we found crowds of people--and they all seem to be leaving just as we arrived. What's going on?

That's when we found out you don't visit the Great Sand Dunes in the afternoon in July! The sand was scorching our feet!

As the crowds cleared out, we walked about a quarter of a mile across the sand, trying to smile for pictures while our feet were on fire. That's when we turned around and went back to the car.

We later read in the park newspaper that the sand will heat up to 150 degrees in the afternoon! In big red letters they caution people to not hike the dunes in the afternoons during the summer. So after our short walk in the sand, we went to Plan B for today. That was a trip into the nearest town of Alamosa, Colorado. It was here that Denisa's Father finished his master's degree about sixty years ago. So we drove through his alma mater campus of Adams State University to send pictures back to Denisa's Mother.

We also made a trip to the Walmart in town, where we experienced the longest lines outside we have ever seen. We had forty people in line in front of us, as they are monitoring the entrance to keep the number of shoppers inside the store low.

But our most fun shopping experience was 15 miles outside of Alamosa at the "Worth the Drive" Amish family bakery. Our friends from Red River gave us this recommendation, and we're so glad they did!

We came out of there with a record amount of bakery goodies! We have wheat bread, carrot cake, caramel rolls, cookies, fried pies, and a donut. So much for losing weight with all this hiking we're doing!

We also made a stop at the discount grocery store down the road to get a month's supply of protein bars that we eat on the hiking trail. Bars that usually cost $1-$2 each, can usually be found here for a quarter or less. So Plan B worked out very well for restocking our pantry before we headed back into the mountains. We unloaded our goodies back at the motor home, and explored our one-night boondocking home. We drove our car a mile further down that sandy road, past two more big parking lots with several more RVs in them. When the road turned too rocky, we parked the car and walked another mile toward Blanca Peak.

Even though we have come two miles closer, it still feels like that big mountain is a very long ways away. Our camping spot is at 7,600 feet in elevation, so Blance Peak rises almost 7,000 more feet above the desert floor we are standing on. No wonder it looks so massive!

In this high desert dusty camping spot, our only wildlife picture of the day is this long-eared jack rabbit.

We watched the sunset as we walked back to our home on wheels. It's great to be back in Colorado, even on a day when we have to go to Plan B.