The next morning we made our way to the restaurant where the movie theme continued and went in so that Suzanne and I could have our drinks and oatmeal which inspired Suzanne to also want eggs and after recording the glass because we knew we would need liquids all day we took a last picture of where we'd been and headed to where we were going and read the story of the mountains in the distance and the details of Zebulon Pike's excursions while studying this beetle on the ground. Soon we were within Great Sand Dunes National Park and able to look at the map before checking out the dunes from the parking lot and entering the wilderness which involved crossing this creek

so that we could begin our journey

pausing for a picture of us and then continuing on, often pausing to catch our breath, once stopping because the hill was just too steep, having a lot of water and not noticing that we should have used more sunblock (which was to become a theme of our trip)

until after one final pause Suzanne reached the top while I sat breathless a few feet below surveying the views down and up

until Suzanne began her slide down and once solid ground supported us both we did the long march across the flat sand

looking back on where we'd been and then pausing for sand removal (which was only partly successful) before crossing the creek

reading the documentation and heading to the lodge where we'd be spending the night but where our room was not yet ready so that we walked through the flowers and admired the views until we got to the restaurant below where this was the menu and these were the flowers on our table as we got our drinks and enjoyed them after a long walk. Lunch was delightful and when we got the pie list we chose the rocky road brownie and Suzanne had a chat with the pie lady before we departed and admired the views from the porch of our room which was now ready

which made Suzanne feel good as I was reminded to record the interior of the room before returning to the views as a storm seemed to be brewing which didn't bother the hummingbird nearby but the mountains were dark even as we had our afternoon cocktails watched hummingbirds had snacks recorded our most unusual drink as the hummingbird kept the scenery before we returned to the visitor center for a nature walk and saw the circus beetle again and some more flowering cacti while recording what we were seeing. Next we went to dinner at the (one and only) local place where this salad satisfied Suzanne and this burrito satisfied me. Back at our room, we watched the storm form again with hummingbirds and then recorded the sunset and its aftermath in all directions.