Manitou Cliff Dwellings and Great Sand Dunes Natl Pk

Manitou Cliff Dwellings - Manitou Springs, CO
June 21 Morning – Before leaving Colorado Springs, there is a small town called Manitou Springs nearby, boasting some cliff dwellings that we wanted to see. Here is Sylvia in front of the dwellings.

And here is me in front of the dwellings.

Then we found this nice older gentleman who agreed to take a picture of both of us in front of the dwellings.

Apparently he was not an accomplished photographer because although he got the dwellings in the picture, he missed both Sylvia and me. We were to the right, just out of the picture. You will have to imagine us both there.

We found another gentleman with a real nice camera on his shoulder so I figured maybe he would know how to get us in the picture.  He took this image of us.

There we are…..  That’s better.

We went into the Museum there and one of us got some Indian style earrings and the other of us got the bill.
Just outside the museum we got a glimpse of Pike’s Peak again between the buildings. 

Pike’s Peak is the pointy green part to the right side of the background.  Glad we are down from there…..

On the way to the parking lot we noticed this piece of wood lying there that I couldn’t pass by without taking a picture.

It sort of reminded me of an owl, but then I have a big imagination.

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 Great Sand Dunes National Park, Alamosa, CO

June 21 Afternoon - After a 3 hour drive from Colorado Springs we reached the Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park - Never heard of it did you?? It happened to fall about half way between Colorado Springs and our next stop, so we will spend the afternoon and night here.

Admittedly it is not one of the more prominent of the National Parks, but it is quite interesting. These dunes were created and continue to be altered during the wet season here when a river forms just in front of the dunes, where Sylvia is standing in the picture below.

The flowing river brings sand along with the current, adding to the base of the dune, then the wind does the rest, blowing the deposited sand up onto the dune surface.

The above image doesn't show the relative size of the 'Great Sand Dunes' as well as the following one does, where we found some kids running up and down the dune.

There is an area of the dune where kids take their boogie boards and surf down the sand, however they were not there for us to capture in a picture, so you will just have to imagine that too.

We did not attempt to climb the large dune. The excuses:
A- It was too late in the day. 
B- Wrong shoes.
C- Too tired from travelling.
D- Are you kidding me???

Anyway you can see that we made it over the smaller dune just behind me to my left, so we felt some accomplishment.

Found a yellow blooming cactus that we just had to take a picture of.

Next stop is Mesa Verde National Park in the Southwest corner of Colorado.