Western US Roadtrip Part 1 | The Tallest Sand Dunes In North America

The best gifts in life is getting to experience nature for yourself by traveling. Join us today on an amazing adventure where we drive through Colorado and explore the tallest sand dunes in North America. We just got a great start to our epic 3,000 mile road trip from Texas to Grand Teton National Park. Today we're starting out in Abilene, Texas and going all the way to Trinidad, Colorado. It's about eight hours. It's going to be an epic road trip. We're going to visit a bunch of national parks including Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Canyonland, Arches, Capitol Reef and Grand Teton. Also we're going to take a scenic train ride in Provo Canyon, check out some beautiful waterfalls in Idaho and have a ton of fun adventures along the way. If you live in the southwest and are looking to make a road trip all the way up to the mountains of Wyoming, we hope that our journey inspires you. Thank you so much for watching and we hope you all have some amazing vacations this summer. We're in Texas and this is where we're going to start our epic 2022 road trip. We're going to go all the way up to Idaho and Wyoming and back again. And right now we're doing one of the most entertaining things to do in Abilene which is see the prairie dogs in Redbud Park. My favorite place to go in Abilene is the Abilene Zoo. It's a world-class zoo that is really fun. It has giraffes you can see and a really amazing reptile house and this really cool area where they have like Texas animals like from west Texas and around the state. So it's a really neat zoo. There's one more thing we need to go get before we leave on our epic trip and that's good sun protection because we're going to be hiking under the hot western sun a lot during the next two weeks. So let's go find some hats. We found the perfect hats. We're ready for our road trip now. Driving through the western United States is a unique experience. There's always gorgeous scenery waiting for you. Also every great road trip must have good food experiences and our first one was in Fun Noodle Bar in Texas. After a nice lunch we head over to our first stop on our journey the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is in southern Colorado. It's known for huge dunes like the Towering Star Dune. The sand originates from ancient lakes and sediment from the San Juan Mountains and Sangre de Cristo mountain range. The dunes have been formed by complex wind patterns influenced by the topography of the area. We're at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, home of the tallest sand dune in North America at 750 feet tall and this is a really cool national park. There's so much to do here. You can rent a sand sled and go sledding down the dunes. You can just run down the dunes. You can take a long walk in this really interesting landscape and there are even some tall mountain peaks you can climb. The dunes and neighboring mountains are important sacred sites for the Navajo people. This national park is a must visit especially if you have kids. In the summer there is actually a little stream that forms and kids can play in the water and the landscape is just so interesting and fascinating to look at. The Great Sand Dunes make you feel like you're far across the world in the Sahara Desert. You really expect to see camel caravans coming over the hills. The ever-shifting soft shapes of the dunes against the bright blue sky and the striking contrast between the tan dunes and the snowy blue mountains make this place a photographer's playground. It's also a kid's playground in the early summer when the snow melts and causes the creeks in front of the dunes to become fun places to splash around in the water and build sand castles. We're trying to see Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park for sunset but unfortunately we didn't realize that the road is actually closed all the way from the beginning of the Black Canyon to Montrose which is where our hotel is. So we're gonna have to take a two and a half hour detour over the north of the park and now it might be too dark to get a good view of the canyon but we're gonna see what we can. So it's a big adventure and it's a lesson learned that you really got to check the park website and read all of the little warnings and road signs. In our next video we'll visit some of the most exciting and incredible parks in Utah full of gorgeous red rock formations and martian landscapes. Please hit subscribe so you don't miss out on these incredible places. Thank you so much for watching and see you on our next adventure.