Going to the sand dunes, the morning was ideal. Clouds, cool and not crowded.
Arriving at the parking area, people were pulling in, ready to hike the half mile walk to the dunes.
We made it to Denver, visited our loving families and had an amazing time catching up. Today, 9-16-2022 we are heading north to Nebraska, as our next adventure awaits.
We drove for 4 hours today, but it took us about 6 to get to Zapata Falls Campground ( BLM). We stopped a few times along the way, soaking up the scenery.)
Stopped in a cute town called Pagosa Springs, CO and popped into the Humane Society Thrift Store
By the time we made it to our campground, which we booked online last night through recreation.gov, we were just ready to relax.
There’s a waterfall here, it’s a half mile hike, gotta walk through the creek to get to the falls. It’s surprisingly chilly, quite breezy and after our big adventure yesterday.. we just weren’t up for it. So we’ve relaxed, had dinner and a movie. Mitch made some chicken salad and I ate my Mexican food leftovers. what? You wanna know the wildest thing we did today???? Ok, I’ll tell ya! I got double stars on my Starbucks app today when we got Frappuccino’s ( and yes, I don’t know how to spell it, but boy do I love to drink it!)
Tomorrow we’ll be going to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and land in Denver to visit family. The waterfall, we’re not sure, we’re gonna leave that up to tomorrow, today we are gonna enjoy the evening.
Answer about what Mitch was thinking… where are the flat rocks to add to my water fountain at home?
Today is September 12, 2022 and we have officially been there and done that! We booked our bucket list item through Durango Adventures.
This has been a long time coming, Mitch and I haven’t done anything this adventurous together… ever. Unless you count when we were dating and we hiked Palouse falls on accident, (went the easy way down and the HARD way up) and me on the verge of tears because it was soooo narrow!
We were greeted by Skylyr, she made sure we didn’t bring anything we didn’t want to drop, weighed us in and gave us a band that signified what belt we needed. Once the other party arrived that was also scheduled we watched a short video. Then we met our guides, Boggs and Sam. They gave us our gear, made sure we were all suited up and then we hiked.
The hike was about 15 minutes long… maybe a little longer since I’m not one to keep up with the pack. But they were great, they stopped at shaded spots a few times and gave us time to catch our breath.
On my first ever in my life zip line I slowly walk to the edge, practically sitting in the harness before I even got off the platform, thinking that if I started slow, I wouldn’t go very fast. Yeah, no luck with that! Honestly, I began to wonder if anyone had ever passed out because of the overload of adrenaline, and if not would I be the first? By the time I made it to the other side I would’ve swore I was gonna spat right onto that tree, just like George of the jungle. To my overwhelming relief, as fast as I was going, they stopped me just as fast.
We booked the 12 line tour, and thankfully we did. The first six are warm ups for what’s to come with the next six!
Mitch on the other hand, beyond excited to experience the speed went running off the first platform getting as much speed as possible! He loved every minute and the faster the better.
I was brave enough to let go of one hand for one second on one of the lines and awarded myself with a, “oh yeah, I’m a bad ass!” as i clung desperately to cable.
One of the lines is named Destiny, in honor of a co-worker who had passed away. Knowing her story after we were in the office I saw a quote by her.
We asked the guys where’s the best Mexican restaurant, and on Boggs suggestion we went to La Hacienda.
We stopped at a couple thrift stores, no treasures to be found and got a couple things at Walmart. Now.. where to stay for the night. It was 4:46 and the boondocking location was 30 minutes in the opposite direction. Walmart was an option but, we like to sit outside, enjoy the outdoors and just relax. That isn’t ideal at a Walmart. I asked Mitch, “Do you think Durango Adventures would let us stay in their parking lot of for the night?” He said, “we’ll it couldn’t hurt to ask.” So I called and asked. Skylyr said, “let me call the owner and ask. I’ll call you back.” She did and he said YES!
Tomorrow we head towards Denver, stopping halfway there to stay somewhere. When we know, I’ll let you know.
Thank you Durango Adventures for being beyond awesome, each and everyone of you! Click here to go to their website if you ever find yourself in Durango.
Our first whole day on our trip and what did we do? Organized!
Learning my weaknesses has taught me to figure out better ways to adapt. I can never remember what I put in what bag. And boy do I have bags. A candy bag ( yes the biggest bag of em all), tricks of the pain age gadgets like a TENS unit, back brace and such, laptop bag, binocular bag, go pro bag, medicine bag, book bag and even a sunglasses bag. This time around I planned not to lose something every 5 minutes and decided to label everything. So far it’s worked out great! I still misplace my phone throughout the day, but hey, maybe I can make it have it’s own bag.
We rode bikes, played some cards, played with Mitch’s blow darts, Mitch threw him Chinese throw stars and we did a little reading. I couldn’t have been more content. We planned to go back at sunset to get more pictures.
To our delight the moon was full and the sky has somewhat cleared.
This morning we headed our way East to Durango Colorado. Before taking off we soaked up the dew kissed foliage.
To our surprise there was so much more to see on the way out towards the east entrance.
Each pull out we stopped at became my new favorite until we stopped at the next one.
We finally head out after I waited 30 minutes in hopes that the clouds would give me a lightening strike.. no luck but here I sat
We head northeast, towards Durango when I realized we’ll be right by the four corners!
Unfortunately they were closed, so we did the next best thing. Took a picture of the sign.
Just in time to catch a beautiful sunset, turning the page into night
Goin' Road Trippin' 