The Great Sand Dunes

  The purpose of our mini roadtrip last weekend was to see the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, as it was another natural wonder on my must-see list.  Colorado seriously has an overwhelming amount of beauty to offer.  It was about a five hour drive each way, but didn't seem bad with two people driving and with a stop in the middle for food.  Also, this is definitely not your typical outfit post.  In fact you may as well ignore what I am wearing, as it was for practical hiking purposes, and just enjoy the scenery!

Outfit Details:

Tank: Lucky Brand (old)

Shorts: Fossil (old)

Hat: Burton (old)

Shoes: American Eagle (old)

Backpack: Dakine via Ebay

     The sand dunes are quite a baffling phenomenon.  They are hundreds of square miles of sand piled in the middle of a valley and mountain range with an ocean no where in sight!  These pictures do not do the sheer height and size of the dunes justice, as it is hard to portray scale when everything is the same beige color.  I tried to use people in the pictures so you could see how tiny they were compared to the surroundings.  We hiked up the sand ridges for about an hour, which was super hard work! We did not make it to the official "high dune", but we got high enough where we could still really appreciate the amazing view.  

     The sand can reach temperatures of up to 140 degrees, which is crazy, but we got there early enough in the day that there was still a nice cloud cover.  This allowed me to hike all the way to the top barefoot, which was amazing! On they way down though the sun was shining in full force and I suddenly was doing a crazy hot-potato dance because my feet were burning so bad! You know how when you walk along a beach in mid summer, there comes a moment when you realize your feet are on fire and you need to sprint to the ocean that very second like your life depends on it?  Well, there was no ocean here.  I ended up flinging my body on the ground and balancing on my butt with my legs straight in the air until I located my shoes in my backpack. Whew. It was quite the sight I'm sure!

      I promise to have some more actual outfit posts now, as all of my adventure pictures are almost all used up.  Late summer and the beginning of sweater weather, here I come.  I still want to be able to wear dresses all the time, but also love when it is just cool enough to throw something cozy on top! With all my traveling I have also been completely neglecting my shop, but I promise to have an amazing update for you next week!

And one last thing! I just joined Chictopia yesterday (username braidedbandit), and I still am not too sure how it works!  If you guys have accounts on there or on lookbook, leave me your names and I will come say hi! If you have any tips of the trade, I'd love to hear them!

Happy Thursday

xo Hannah