Trip to Salida!

At 9:30 A.M., Saturday, I awoke to my Dad gently shoving me awake.
"Wanna go to the Endres house with me?" he asked. "Oliver's probably going with us as well." (For those of you who don't know, the Endres are some family friends from church).
Having just woken up, I had no idea what he was talking about, but I agreed, none-the-less. After a few more minutes of being awake, I learned that we needed to go to their house to drop off something for them having to do with church, because we weren't going to be able to attend church this week.
"We're going to Salida this weekend," Dad informed me, and I instantly became excited. We were heading back to our mountains, the Sangre de Cristos!
For those of you who don't know, Salida is a small little town about 60-75 minutes away from the town of Westcliffe, where I grew up. Both towns are fairly similar to each other, I'd say, although after this trip I think Salida's bigger than 4,000 people, whereas Westcliffe is not. 
We left for Salida at about 1:30 P.M. that same day, where we arrived about three or four hours later. During that drive, we talked about random things, practically none-stop, and I took so many pictures of the snow infested mountains it's not even funny! We saw some deer, but that was about all the wildlife we saw, sadly. Once we got into Salida and were checked into our hotel room, Dad treated the three of us to a restaurant that overlooked Salida's river. We were entertained as we watched kayak-ers try and 'surf', so to speak, on the rapids. After supper we headed back to the hotel room, where Mom and Dad promptly went to sleep. I followed their example about an hour later or so, and I'm guessing Oliver went to bed an hour or two later.

Mountains, coming down whatever pass we were on...

More mountains!

Abandoned Cabin

Two Deer

Mountain!

 

 

 

 

 

 At about 8:30 this morning, we all woke up and were packed and out of our hotel at about 9:00 or 9:30. Our next destination...The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado!

The Sand Dunes were a blast! I haven't been to them for years, which is odd considering they're located on the other side of the mountains I grew up on and around. Again, I got tons of pictures of these dunes, even though we didn't hike them. Why didn't we hike 'em? Because there was a lot of wind, and the sand stung our bare legs (we were all in shorts) harshly just by being down at the basin of the dunes. But we enjoyed the creek that's at the basin, and Dad and I stayed a bit longer than the other two, where he enjoyed watching people and I enjoyed taking pictures of the dunes and random people on them.

In order from left to right: Oliver, Mom, and Dad!

Poor, lone tree in the middle of all the sand...

Poor, lone branch, in the middle of the dunes :)

This here is one of my favorites of the day! Shoes, dunes, and mountains! :D

The creek at the foot of the dunes!

Once the four of us were all ready to go, we got back into the car, where Dad mysteriously drove up a separate pass, not to the town where we were planning to eat lunch. Rather, Dad was first taking us on a short hike, where a waterfall was at the end!
Now, out of the four of us in my family, I'm basically the only one who enjoys physical activity, such as hiking. My Dad enjoys it sometimes as well, but my brother and Mom...NO. They hate it. And so you can imagine that hiking even short trails is very rare in my family, making me that much more excited. After a short 1/2 mile climb, we reached the creek. It was beautiful, but none of us knew what we had yet to see.
Wanting to see this waterfall, I waded through the creek-shoes and socks on- until my feet couldn't stand the cold anymore, and then I'd find a dry rock nearby and stand on it until my toes were no longer numb. Meanwhile, my parents took the much longer route of trying to 'climb' on the walls surrounding the creek to the waterfall to avoid getting wet shoes. My brother stayed on the sidelines, watching the three of us make our way to the waterfall, thinking the whole time how 'crazy' we were.
After a bit of a struggle, I reached the waterfall, which was hidden within a cave. Peering up at it, my eyes widened at the sight of a huge chunk of ice hanging right by it. A second later I was rushing back to the shore of the creek where Oliver stood with the camera, for fear that if I took it I'd drop it in the water and kill it. But I had to have it for this. I knew this without having seen the whole waterfall in all its majesty yet, and so when I reached him two minutes later, I begged him to give me the camera. Reluctantly, he handed it off to me, and we were all lucky that I didn't drop it. =)
Excited beyond belief, I rushed back through the ice cold water (ice, due to the ice, I now realized) until I reached the waterfall's cave again, where my parents had finally managed to get to. Here's some of the pictures (they're not the best, considering I was so dang excited and the lighting wasn't all that good either, but whatever.)

Left to right: Oliver, Dad, and Mom, as we first arrive at the creek!

The creek in all its glory xD

Mom and I inside the little cave place where the waterfall was. Note how we're standing on the water.

The waterfall and the ice!

The ice hanging down from the cave

We probably waded in the water for a good 45 minutes or so before leaving, the three of us that had gone to see the waterfall at awe, and our feet completely soaked and numb. But the three of us agreed; it was so totally worth it.
Afterward, we headed to town where we ate at a Chinese restaurant, and left quickly after (it was downright creepy being one of the only costumers in the whole building). From there we started heading home the long way, going through Monarch pass, where I got even more pictures (but don't worry, I'll spare ya xD). When we left the Chinese restaurant it was probably around 3:30 in the afternoon, and we didn't get home till about 9:45. Again, like on the way to Salida, we talked a good chunk of the way, and Dad was amazing enough to pull over on the road when I wanted a picture of the mountains or something.
All in all, this trip to Salida was a great way to start the summer off! All four of us were together, I took a lot of photos, and there was some awesome sight-seeing. I can't wait to see what else the summer has in store for me. =D
~Kathy