2014 Great Sand Dune Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, we went camping in the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

This place is awesome. If you've never been there, you really need to check it out. Pictures do not do it justice ...


But ...

Our group campsite

Sand and water and mountains

Pictures at the Great Sand Dunes

For the third year in a row, my family went camping at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Just like last year, we camped in a group site with the same people (mostly) that we camped with last year.

You can read all about our adventures in and around the Sand Dunes (including this post) by following this link.

Here are some pictures:

Brewing Laser Salt Again

"So, Sheppy, what's with the Laser Salt?", asked one of my more loyal readers in a comment of Killing the Glutens. I didn't answer at that time. But, here you go:

The question has to do with SheppyBrew's Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale. "Laser Salt" refers to the  Great Sand Dunes National Park. The term "Laser Salt" is an inside joke between the SheppyBrew Beer Model, myself, and a couple of old friends.

The summer that we first moved to Colorado, we decided to head down to the Sand Dunes to camp. Just before we went, a couple of friends came to visit us from Illinois. While talking, my wife told the couple that we were "going blazer camping in the sand". Of course, what this meant was that we were taking the Chevy Blazer that we owned at the time and camping by the Great Sand Dunes. At the time, most of the camping we did was backpacking. Blazer camping just meant we were camping close the car as opposed to backpacking.

Sand Dune Pictures

As you may have surmised from some of my recent blog posts, last weekend, we went camping with a group of people to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The Great Sand Dunes are always fun. My family spent a weekend in the park's campground last year, and had a blast (see Laser Camping in the Salt, Videos from Laser Camping in the Salt, and Guitar Lady Goofy Kid) . I especially suggest going back and looking at Videos from Laser Camping in the Salt as it features some pretty cool videos of sledding down sand dunes.

One cool thing about the dunes is a shallow, wide creek at the base of the dunes. It dries up in the summer, and so last year we didn't get to see it (or play in it). This year since it was earlier in the year, the creek was still around, making the whole experience even more fun.

Here are some pictures of this year's camping trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park:

Killing the Glutens

As you may remember, my hot beautiful SheppyBrew Beer Model brewed up a batch of beer about a month ago (see Brewing the Laser Salt). We thought it would be fun to bring a keg with us to the Great Sand Dunes National Park where we had been invited to join a bunch of people at one of the group camp sites.

We were invited by our gluten-sensitive friend "Gretchen" whom I have mentioned quite a bit on this blog when writing about my Gluten Free brewing. She is also the person for whom I brewed Free the Glutens! APA.

Laser Salt and the Beer Model Part 2

Watch this video of my wife sliding down a sand dune:

When my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) saw this video she asked me, "how did you know I would scream?"

I just gave her a look and said "I just knew". We have been married a long time.

So, when we last left you in part 1 of Laser Salt and the Beer Model, We had to narrow down "not too hoppy and not too dark" to an actual style of beer. We needed to do this so that we could develop a recipe. We needed the recipe to buy ingredients. We need ingredients to brew the beer.

There were a couple more requirements.

Guitar Lady Goofy Kid

Well, believe it or not, there are a couple more videos to post from the Laser Camping in the Salt trip.

I still have not told you why I call it "Laser Camping in the Salt". Does anyone want to take a guess? Do you? Do you?

You could win fabulous prizes if you come up with the best (one that entertains me the most) answer. Double points if it is the right answer too.

Videos from Laser Camping in the Salt

As promised, here are some videos from our "Laser Camping in the Salt" trip.

Laser Camping in the Salt

We went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park last weekend. It is only about 4.5 hours south west of us, but the Colorado Shepards have not been there since the summer after we first moved to Colorado. Of course that was before we had kids, so the youngest members of our family have never been.

I should apologize (especially for those of you with dial-up internet connections) for the number of pictures here. It was hard to cut down the selection (although this is not even close to all of the ones we have).