I first visited the sand dunes during the spring break of my sophomore year in college with Matt Perry and Dave Burns. We had a wonderful trip. The sand dunes just don't seem to belong in the mountain region of southern Colorado, but then I guess that's what makes them so special. We camped near them in a designated campground and spent the days (I don't recall how many) on the dunes: we hiked, ran up dunes, ran down dunes, picnicked on dunes and even flew kites on top of dunes. Running down the dunes is a kick, because you can just jump out as far as you can from the slope, and you'll come down in the soft sand some twenty feet down the way. No worries. Running up the dunes isn't as fun. The kites were a big thrill, until Matt diabolically maneuvered his kite so as to sever my kite's string. He says it was an accident. It took me half an hour to fetch that dang kite. Matt snored alot, and my sleeping bag that I had bought at Savers for the trip got soaked because it touched the tent fabric during the dewy night. We had a good time cooking burgers on the open fire at after dark, examining constellations. A couple showed up near our camp at 10:30 asking for wood to build a fire. We had no sympathy. Only losers show up to camp at 10:30 in the desert without their own wood. All in all, a very good spring break.
