Day 20: Great Sand Dunes National Park to Chatfield State Park

We woke up around sunrise, geared up, and headed back out to the dunes for one last visit before getting on the road to our next destination. 

We explored the dunes and the creek, ran down the sides of the hills, and sat and watched the surroundings change as the sun climbed into the sky. 

Eventually we headed back to camp and packed up our site. I highly recommend this park if you ever find yourself in Colorado! The campsite is nice and the dunes provide hours of opportunity for exploration. Some kids were sled riding down the dunes on cardboard, people were riding horses across the dunes, and the chance to try to fathom the creation of these giant mounds of sand is worth the trip. It is my understanding that the park can get very crowded in early June when Medano Creek is flowing, and the Mosquitos can by annoying, but overall it is a great park! It is in bear country, but each campsite has its own bear box for food storage! 

Once we got back on the road we only had an hour and half drive to our next planned destination. We made the decision to stay at a campsite we stayed at last year because of its amazing dog park. It is very rare for us to stay at the same place twice, but we thought  the park was worth it. Vegas loved it last year and we wanted to let Scout explore it too! 

We arrived at Chatfield State Park just outside of Denver in the early afternoon, so after setting up at our first modern campground of the trip--with electrical hook up and water AT our site--we set out to the dog park. The park was flooded from heavy rains and snow melt, so we lucked out with our timing because the dog park had just reopened on the day of our visit. 

The dogs enjoyed an hour or so of running on trails and Scout enjoyed swimming in the pond (Reno opted out of the swimming), and Scout played nicely with the other dogs at the park. We are trying to get Scout as socialized as possible on this trip while he is so young so that we can take him more places in the future. He has been doing great! From kids, to bicyclists, to other dogs, to patios, he has been cool, calm, and collected through it all. It was a little bittersweet being there without Vegas since he loved that park so much, but I'm so glad we decided to get a new pup for this trip! He certainly has made this trip memorable! 

Once the pups were thoroughly worn out, we headed back to camp for dinner and to shower at the nice shower facilities. The entire campsite seemed to head to bed early. It was a calm and quiet night and after reading a few chapters in my book we headed to bed for a solid night of sleep.