After a pleasant camp at Coyote Creek we decide to move onto Colorado. On a previous trip several years ago to visit Angie's Mom and Grandmother in Pueblo, my brother-in-law, Vince, and I drove out to Great Sand Dunes National Park for the day. It's a pretty unique place so I thought Angie should see it so we head that direction.
The drive takes us thru Angel Fire and Taos (which we might come back to for skiing), and then bam! right over the Rio Grande Gorge! We stop to take a look and walk out to the center of the bridge where there's an overlook spot. Well, turns out Kipper is afraid of heights. He went reluctantly but practically broke my arm when we turned to leave and go back to the van.
Who knew?
That's a big ditch!
A few miles from the Rio Grande we happen upon the headquarters for Earthship http://earthship.org/ which is an organization that builds homes out of recycled materials such as tires, aluminum cans, and bottles. I had heard of these and seen their website so I couldn't pass on an opportunity to see them close up. The homes are self sufficient and get their power from wind and solar and also recycle their wastewater. It was a hot day and the interior was remarkably cool without any AC due to the thick walls made of tires that have been filled with soil and covered over with concrete. There's an entire community of these homes located here.
Atrium faces South to warm the home in the winter and the grey water is recycled into the plants.
Pretty cool.
Late afternoon we arrive at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado just to find out that the campground is full. Turns out it's Friday (which we didn't even know...it's easy to lose track of the days!) and a bunch of other people are camping for the weekend too. Oops. No problem, the guide book suggests a nearby state park, San Luis Lake State Park, about 15 miles away. Seems this is the go-to place if you can't get into the Dunes so we speed over there and get a spot before they fill up for the night. Actually turns out to be a happy accident because we get a nice campsite overlooking a little lake and beyond that is the Dunes in the distance. It's quite windy until sunset but the campground has built windbreaks over the picnic table and I position LeTigre to provide additional protection. We get camped and cook a great dinner just before the sun sets at our back making for some fantastic
views of the Dunes. Good day.
Home for the night, not bad.
Ang' and Kipper get the lay of the land.
Another good day coming to a close.
Best meal yet. More to come.
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