Great Sand Dunes and Monte Vista

Our first part of the trip was from our house to Monte Vista. On the way, we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.



We passed by the YMCA of Boulder Valley Santa Maria Camp. The statue of Jesus is visible from the road, as is the lettering on the mountain. The statue's base contains a replica of Jesus's tomb.



The Great Sand Dunes National Park is home to the tallest sand dunes in North America. They are over 750 feet tall. The dunes are directly west of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and the whole area is really geographically diverse.



These pictures are visible from the visitor's center. Once you get there, you can't do a whole lot more driving past it. There are plenty of hiking trails. The weather was rather poor, otherwise we might have climbed the dunes--just to see what it was like.



We stayed at the Best Western Movie Manor in Monte Vista. What a fun place! It was built next to a drive-in movie theater.



The owner of the drive-in built the place, thinking that it would be a great idea if his hotel guests could watch the movie, if they wanted to, in the comfort of their own rooms. The sound is piped directly in, and the rooms have large picture windows that look out onto the screen. Each room is named for an actor or actress. You can see whose room we had the good fortune to stay in...



The screen is pretty big but looks small from the rooms in the daytime. We watched Star Trek the night we were there, and the screen didn't look small with the picture and sound going. We had a great time watching it!