Great Sand Dunes

And the final destination of our trip was once again (like on my last trip down south) the Great Sand Dunes. This place is truly astonishing... a desert in the middle of the Rocky mountains, surrounded by 14k mountains, a prairie and a little river winding around it. Basically the steady wind of a few thousand years was pressing all the prairie sand in one corner of the Rockies which are now forming a little 'out-of-place' dessert.

But don't be fouled by the green vegetation around the Great Sand Dunes: it is still a dessert. So wandering through it is quite a challenge and after 1 1/2 hours we turned back to our car again. And after a nice dinner at an Himalayan restaurant nearby (really interesting how they got there in the first place) we were already on our way back to Denver... from a fantastic vacation!