Guess where we went for Presidents' Day.... hint: it was only 1.5 hours away, and in the south-easterly direction. It was all new territory for us...though it did remind us of our beloved southern Utah deserts. We heard from some neighbors that WY had sand dunes. Yes, real sand dunes. Apparently, rather large ones at that. Since we see ourselves as pseudo sand conoisseurs, we had to go check it out. They are the real deal! They are called the Killpecker Sand Dunes. There is an open play area, and a wilderness study area (closed to motorized vehicles). We opted for the study area. Pictures below:
A random storm, seen from the highway on our way south
Looks a bit like southern Utah, no?
And after about 12 miles on dirt roads (40-60 mph dirt roads) we turned a corner to see this, it is an isolated remnant of a long extinct volcano. You may have heard of Devil's Tower? This is sort of like a sister tower. The kids called it Mt. Doom.
North and east of the Boar's Tusk, the sand dunes were already visible...
Another view of the Boar's Tusk, a class 5.10 climb (so we've heard)
We drove as far as possible on one road, and walked a bit more until we got too cold. In the wind.
There was a strange little stream running through the desert by the Tusk, depositing this mineral looking stuff..salt? I didn't want to taste it...but it didn't look salty...
And then L, shouting "Look! a beaver animal thing!"...which was really a prairie dog.
We then followed an abandoned railroad south for awhile, until we hooked back into the main road, which we turned left on to keep exploring, seeing if we could find the sand.
We found the sign (yay!) and followed the road until...
sand dunes?
Sand dunes! Oh yeah. The sand was so soft, and we still hadn't seen another human the whole trip. In other words, not CROWDED. And FREE.
Those dunes in the distance are bigger than they look. We are excited to go back when it's warmer and run barefoot through them.
Then on our way out of the dunes, we decided to take a turn-off labeled "Pine Canyon", to see if we could find a good spot for lunch. after a 10 minute drive, below is what we found. You can imagine the excitement...who knew?! Who knew WY had cool rocks?!
And on our way home, the Tusk again from another angle. All pics were taken from the inside of a moving car...but you get the idea...
And THAT, my people, is a part of WY I'd never seen or heard about. But I love it. Wyoming is definitely growing on me. :)
1 comment:
Awesome.
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