Back to the Interstate

28 degrees this morning, coldest morning yet.  But, after all, it is the end of September and we’re still at 6,000 feet in elevation, so this is to be expected.

We left our nice little campsite and headed down towards civilization, stopping briefly at Mores Creek Summit again to check emails.  The mountains have been enjoyable for the last couple of weeks but now we will head down to more populous areas as our volunteer work approaches.  I do appreciate a twisty mountain road more than the Interstate, but to the Interstate we go.

Our destination for today, after stopping at a Walmart in Mountain Home for supplies, was Bruneau Dunes State Park.  This showed up on a few different searches as a place to visit.  Kind of an odd geological feature, this park features several sand dunes situated in an area of dry buttes, sagebrush and cheat grass.  One dune, creatively named Big Dune, is the tallest single-structured dune in North America, so it earns an honorable mention in our World’s Largest collection.  It rises 470 feet above the desert floor.

During our conversation with Carla at the Visitor Center, we learned that this park is a bucket-list item for a lot of people, particularly families with teens.  The thing to do here is to slide down the dunes on special sand sleds, or on something very closely resembling a snowboard. And, conveniently, you can rent said sleds at the visitor center for fifteen bucks a pop, or twenty five for two.

We paid our twenty five bucks and drove to Big Dune.  May as well go big or go home.  Little Dune is also a favorite sliding hill, but it is only 70 feet high.

One thing that became apparent immediately is the need for a chair lift. Climbing a 470-foot dune takes a lot of time and energy.  After nearly 20 minutes of carrying the sleds all the way to the top, it took all of twenty seconds to reach the bottom.  And the wax that needs to be applied to the bottom of the sled before each run wears off after the first 10 feet, resulting in a complete stop if the slope isn’t steep enough.  I suspect a better slope would have been the back of the dune, which was steeper and longer, but that would mean a climb back up the steep side of the dune.

After one unspectacular run down Big Dune, we decided to give Little Dune a try.

Turns out this was much better.  It didn’t take near as long to get to the top and the slope was such that it made for good sliding.  We did this hill several times.

As it was now late in the day we decided to camp here.  We had already done a fair amount of driving today and the campground had a shower.  Sliding down the dunes gets sand ​everywhere.​  First order of business after selecting a campsite, taking a shower to rinse the sand off.  And then cleaning all the accumulated sand out of the RV.