Ft. Garland and the Great Sand Dunes

We had an awesome weekend! Our mission was to visit the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, but along the way, we wandered into more great history. One was Ft. Garland, which Steve and I had already visited, but we wanted to show the kids, plus, I've become interested in Kit Carson (why can't I remember studying him in high school?), he spent some time at the fort with his young wife and children. This is also one of the forts where the famed Buffalo Soldiers stayed. I'm am reading a great book called The Forgotten Heroes based on the history of the black soldiers in the aftermath of the Civil War. After leaving the fort and on our way to the Sand Dunes, we happened upon a family who's mission in life is to preserve Colorado's history. They had reconstructed every living habitat of different tribes of Indians, along with a sheriff's' office (which the "boys" slept in) and plains animals, including bison. They actually lived on this land, inside the tee pees or the hogan, or whatever suited their fancy, without electricity or running water. Needless to say, these folks where pretty interesting! Very educational and exciting for both the kids and Steve and I. Finally we headed toward the Dunes and were a little distracted by the ever present mule deer who seemed untroubled by our presents. (Someday, you should get Steve to teach you how to "speak deer".) Once we were finally on the dunes, the kids had a wonderful time. They are already experienced sleighers, so this was a piece of cake, even a little on the slow side for them. If you have never been there, it can be a little unsettling at first because the dunes seem so out of place. It's like Auby said "it's a beach without water!" And of course, there are the beautiful Colorado Rockies in the background, I've never seen Switzerland but I imagine it looks a lot like that. The sky is so blue in contrast to the sand, it almost looks as if the backdrop is fake. There are seven insects that live in the dunes and nowhere else on earth. And a kangaroo rat, creepy! Auby went through the Junior Ranger program and earned himself a badge. You can see his ranger hat in the pictures, he is very proud of that, he even has to be able to see it when he goes to bed. He is really taking his new job seriously! We spent the whole day exploring God's wonderful creation and we needed much more time.
The next day, we went back to Taos to tour Kit Carson's house and get a little more background on him. If anyone has a book of his life, I'd really like to borrow it. The tour guide we had was the niece the Kit Carson's wife, Josephina. She was born in the house that they shared and the family passed it down through the generations honoring the wishes of Josephina herself. She was a great guide because she had so much personal and family history that had been passed on to her.
It was a GREAT weekend, what will we do next weekend?