CO Road Trip - Part II

 After our stay in Amarillo, our family drove to colorful Colorado. Our first stop was doing this mile-long hike to Zapata Falls in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Great Sand Dunes. The hike up was very rocky!

Once we reached the river, we realized that the only way to view the waterfall was to wade through the water...

...so in we went!

The water felt chilly, but the kids thought it was great fun to get their shoes and socks completely soaked!

The info we had read online claimed Zapata Falls was a 25-foot waterfall, so it was a little disappointing to find a much smaller falls at the end of our hike. It was still pretty, however, plus nice and cool. Traversing through the water was definitely a fun memory too.

On the hike down, we glimpsed some beautiful views of the Great Sand Dunes!

This national park, Great Sand Dunes NP and Preserve, was our destination the next morning. The time zone difference worked in our favor, as we were able to eat breakfast, fully check out of our hotel, drive the 45-minutes from our hotel, and still arrive at the dunes by shortly after 7:00!

We picked up sand sleds the previous day from an outdoor sports store near our hotel. These made our day at the dunes extra exciting!

There was a bit of a learning curve figuring out the best hills to slide down, how to position ourselves on the sled, and how much wax to put on our sleds, but once we got the hang of it, we all had a blast sledding down the hills!

Some action videos!

Even Adley started going down the hills by herself at the end! What a fearless girl!

Trudging back up these huge hills was a different story... We sure got our exercise in on this day! These kids are blessed to have a strong, caring dad who carried their sleds on many of the uphill trips.

We all marveled in the beauty of God's handiwork at this national park. What an amazing sight to see these immense sand dunes! If you zoom in closely on the photo below, you might be able to recognize the two boys climbing up the faraway hill.

In addition to sledding, Adley found some other fun ways to play in the sand.

What a uniquely beautiful place! 

Since the visitors center wasn't yet open when we arrived at the park, our family stopped by on our way out so that we could pick up a Jr. Ranger booklet. Only Adley was interested in completing the activities. Once done, she was very proud to do the pledge and receive her first Jr. Ranger badge.

We loved our time at this National Park!

After our early, active morning, we decided that an ice cream treat was in order. We found a fun local shop in Alamosa that sold hand-rolled ice cream. This was a first for all of us. We were very intrigued by the process and found the ice cream deee-licious!

Notice our little girl covered in sand??

What a great ending to a great day!

CO Road Trip - Part I

 In July, our family took an amazing vacation to the beautiful state of Colorado. We loved experiencing the much cooler weather, being amidst mountains, and having lots of outdoor adventures. Many thanks go to my sister Kim for letting us borrow heavily from their CO trip itinerary several years ago. Their family had researched many great activities which we did and thoroughly enjoyed as well. Our kids did a wonderful job of traveling in the car and thankfully so, as we clocked many driving hours on this trip!

 

Our first night, we stopped in Amarillo, TX, where we enjoyed a tasty Cracker Barrel dinner...

...and then visited the iconic Cadillac Ranch. What a bizarre landmark! These 10 half-buried Cadillacs are open year-round for full (and legal!) visitor defacement.

It was fairly busy when we arrived, but the kids didn't let that stop them from finding their own section of vehicles to spray paint. They seemed to enjoy the complete freedom to paint whatever and wherever they wanted!

The next day we stayed in Amarillo and kicked off our hiking adventures by visiting Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

The temperatures were quite warm (upper 90s) that day, so we only did one main hike, the CCC trail. This trail took us down into the canyon for some very impressive views. Our God is such a talented Creator!

The kids all started out being wonderful hikers. They especially enjoyed their water backpacks.

We saw quite a few brightly colored lizards that the kids liked following.

Because of the heat, we didn't hike the full distance to the bottom of the canyon but turned back after 0.8 miles or so. The uphill return hike to our car was much more exhausting for everyone. Adley ran out of steam halfway back and cried, "I want air conditioning!!" 😆 Thankfully, she has a strong and loving daddy who carried her along the last portion of the hike back to the air conditioned car. Even with these troubles, though, the incredible views were so worthwhile!

After the CCC hike, we drove along the Canyon Loop through the park and got out for a few photo opps.

I'm not sure why this developed, but Cody got a kick out of traveling across the roads doing a crab walk.

We made sure to stop by "The Big Cave" along our drive. This point of interest involved a bit of hiking, though thankfully everyone did this one without complaint! It was a very cool landform.

Jaden and Cody had a blast climbing up all kinds of rocky ledges, both in and out of the cave.

We'd love to explore this state park again during some cooler months, but we still greatly enjoyed our taste of Palo Duro Canyon!

That evening, after a refreshing afternoon swim at the hotel, we visited The Big Texan for dinner. This restaurant is famous for their 72 oz. steaks that, if consumed in their entirety in one sitting, are given to patrons for free!

During our meal, we saw one gentleman trying to complete the steak-eating challenge. He was seated at a prominent table raised high off the ground so everyone could monitor his progress. The guy made a good effort but called it quits with still quite a bit of food left on his plate. Cody, however, asked us to take a photo for his cousins of him (supposedly) finishing his own 72 oz. steak. Here is Cody's "exceptionally full" face. Ha!

What a great start to our vacation!