Construction noises woke me up as if I was in the middle of Calgary again. Signs put up the day before had warned of there being some maintenance done in the area, so I was not taken off guard in my wilderness abode. I headed the 5 miles or so to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, poor Luna was freaking out at the cattle guards and trying to crawl in my lap; she’s developed such a strong dislike of them and can often spot them well in advance, so anticipates them anxiously, she hates the noise and feeling as we drive over them. The area we have been staying in the past few days has three cattle guards in the 7.5 miles before our campsite and there were two or three others before the state park, Luna hates this road because of them, anxious the whole time we drive it. Arriving at the dunes, I paid the $20 fee, $8 of which covered my entrance to the park and the rest for the campsite. I immediately went to my campsite to park and then made a beeline for the showers. It was just cool enough to leave Luna in the car with the windows partway down and I was desperate for a rinse. I had considered coming here the day before, but wanted to hold off on a shower one more day and figured I would want to spend more time at the park than what I still had in the day. The shower was glorious as ever and I shampooed my hair twice, the first shampoo merely sticking to the grime, the second foaming up as it should! Returning to my campsite, I made and ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich on the delicious bakery bread I had gotten a few days before as Luna pretended not to eye the peanut butter, seeing as I had just given her some on her antler when I went to shower. We then headed to the sand dunes and enjoyed a nice walk in the soft sand. I was disappointed to find how few sand dunes there really were and how the place was ruled by off-highway vehicles, but it is still lovely here. Luna loves sand dunes and beaches so much that she becomes fit to burst with zoomies anytime we get the chance to visit them, so of course I let her off a few times to let off steam and have fun (and give me a good laugh!). After only 1 1/2 hours or so we returned to our campsite, the heat of the day was strong in the shadeless dunes and the lack of trails and excess of quads did not make it as appealing to tough out the heat. Fortunately, each campsite has a shaded picnic table area (very luxurious, I think it may be my first campsite with that!), so Luna and I settled in there for a time, her napping and watching the sights, me finishing a book I was reading, then doing a little planning for my Southern Utah time. Around 4:15 we headed out again for another 1 1/2 hours or so, walking up on to the highest dunes and watching the beginning of sunset. Luna and I dug in the sand together, ran as fast as we could down the huge dune and play fought in the sand under the brilliant blue sky. I settled on one of the dunes and tried some meditation, the most successful time yet, usually I panic as soon as I attempt to meditate by myself, but this time it felt nice. The loud engine noises, people nearby, my desire to get back to my campsite to make dinner before it got dark and Luna’s annoyance at sitting around out there when it was past her dinnertime finally drove me out of there before the sunset. The views at the dunes are not what they could be with tire tracks criss-crossing everywhere, rather than long expanses of sand with beautiful designs from the wind. Luna and I had our suppers, then headed to the car for the night.
Cozy
So much joy!
Pouncing on a stick after running a perfect circle.
Caption this, haha!
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