Alamosa and the Great Sand Dunes National Park

For the last portion of our Colorado trip, we went to Alamosa to explore the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

First stop was a quick trip to Salida which was such an adorable town! We took a short hike up the S Mountain then walked around downtown a little. 

While we waited for our VRBO to be ready in Alamosa we ate an absolutely fantastic lunch at Calvillo's. Best tamales I've ever had in my life! Did a little thrift shopping, then headed to our home for the next two nights. The boys loved this place-it had a super nice pool table and they each had their own fancy room!

Josh made up this sandwich from pretzel bread we bought in Buena Vista. She was tasty!

After dinner we went to the hot springs pool in town. It was really cheap after 4 pm, so the boys swam for a couple hours each night we were in Alamosa. 

Bright and early the next morning we headed to the national park. On the way Josh spotted signs for a wildlife area...it was not very bumping with wildlife but it was pretty!

Then we waited in line approximately an hour to get a sled and sand board to use at the park. Worth the wait but geez they need to streamline this process!

So much walking on sand! That was a ton of work but we had a blast!

We took the long way back to Alamosa and stopped for some pretty views. 

Back in time to get the lunch special at Lucky Bamboo-another great find! Portions were huge and it was delicious. 

Did a little more wandering around, kids found a cheap arcade, then it was back to the hot springs for another dip in the super warm pool before heading to bed and striking out for Kansas in the morning!
 

Buena Vista Part II

We had two more days in Buena Vista before moving to Alamosa.

MONDAY

We started off the morning on a hike to an abandoned resort called Interlaken. It was definitely off the beaten path but the hike had insane views the whole time. 

I think it was about 2.5 miles to get to the resort. It was popular in the late 19th century but closed because of a new dam causing changes to the lakefront. 

The grounds were really neat, you can go into a couple of the buildings and go into all of the rooms. 

We parked super far from the actual trailhead because the road was crazy bumpy.

After the hike we went and cleaned up a little then met back up downtown for a late lunch/early dinner. We ate at House Rock Kitchen and it was fantastic! 

We stayed on Cottonwood Creek and man did it live up to its name! We had cottonwood everywhere, a lot of times it looked like it was snowing.

Dave and I took a walk this evening. 

TUESDAY

Our last full day in Buena! We kind of piddled around in the morning then we split up-our family of four went for a hike to a waterfall and the rest went downtown to check out the 4th of July parade and pancake breakfast. 

This old schoolhouse was on the way to our hike. It was so tiny!

We hiked to Agnes Vaille Falls and had great views of Mt. Antero. 

After our hike we went into town to check out the festivities but couldn't find any food! So we went to lunch at Simple Eatery. Food was great and we picked up some fresh bread for the next part of our trip!

We spotted a deer just wandering through town. 

Ping pong tournament on our last evening. 

Then we played a little bocce ball. Grandpa Boo and Ike were the winners!

Since it was 4th of July we found a spot to watch the local fireworks. It was pretty hilarious, all these people were setting off fairly big fireworks so we kept thinking that was the actual town fireworks. We ended up watching fireworks for over an hour because of all the displays and the real ones were awesome!

Wednesday morning we all got around and headed our separate ways. Em and Meranda flew back to Indiana, Josh's parents went to Georgetown and we went Southeast to Alamosa and the sand dunes. Huge thank you to Barry and Divana for this trip! We had such an awesome time hanging out with everyone and exploring this part of the mountains. 

 

Buena Vista Part I

For summer vacation this year we went to Colorado with Josh's parents and sister. We stayed primarily in Buena Vista, then headed to Alamosa on our own for a couple of nights. It was such a fun trip-wonderful mix of hanging out and being adventurous. Plus some good food mixed in there!

We arrived on Friday June 30th after staying the night in Kansas with Joe and Claudia on our way out. After being in the car so long the kids were pumped to get out and explore the beautiful house we stayed in. 

Em and Meranda flew in to Denver so Josh's parents picked them up and they arrived shortly after we did. 

Ordered pizza for our first night from Elkhorn Pizza. This place was delicious! 

The house had a garage filled with games-ping pong, pool, darts. The kids were in heaven!

AND a hot tub.

We took a lot of walks down to the big river, which was about a half mile away.

SATURDAY

On our first full day we packed up to go see a couple of sites nearby between Mt. Alero and Mt. Princeton. 

First stop was this wildlife viewing area...we saw a lot of prairie dogs.

Next up was a pretty neat waterfall you could basically see from the road. 

Finally made it to our destination-Saint Elmo, which is a ghost town up in the mountains. Elevation 10,000 feet!

This was a cool stop and the views were absolutely gorgeous. The kids bought some feed and let the chipmunks crawl all over them. Kinda gross to me but they had a blast. 

On the way down the mountain Josh talked us into going to Sheep Canyon to see if we could spot some wildlife. It was pretty much a bust but the views were pretty. The hike to get to this area was rough!

After all that activity in the morning we somehow still had energy, so we went to downtown Buena and walked around. 

Later that evening Ike and I walked to the river and took some pictures. 

SUNDAY

Sunday morning we got up and went for a hike on the Barbara Whipple trail to get views of Buena Vista from the hills. 

After our hike we cooked breakfast and had a mini sermon before resting up for our big adventure that afternoon. 

White water rafting! We rafted down the Arkansas River and experienced up to level 3+ rapids. It was crazy, we about froze because the water was so so cold and we really had to work together as a team! We had so much fun and the rapids were awesome! We went through American Adventure Expeditions and would highly recommend them.

Divana's seat had a hole in it so we had to keep stopping so our guide could air it back up!

The after pictures-we got absolutely soaked!