Up the road from Jim's house were a few different places of worship and we decided to stop at an Ashram. I wish that there had been a welcome center sign or something because we felt incredibly out of place while we were there, especially since we didn't run into anyone else! Josh just took a few photos and we left.
Next was a drive through the actual town of Crestone... which was not that impressive. We just did a quick drive through! I think this is a photo of one of the three stop signs in the town.
Next on our list was the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
I knew this would be good as soon as we spotted an adorable frog in the visitor center!!
The dunes were pretty crazy. They're about 750 feet tall, cover almost 19,000 acres, and are estimated to be over 12,000 years old!!
Of course, we had to take some goofy jumping and hand stand photos, too.
Before leaving, we found an X... if only we had more time to unearth this buried treasure!
We continued on our way to Taos and made it into New Mexico (again)!
We drove across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. The view of the Gorge was amazing!
Josh and I arrived in Taos in the early evening and met David and Elaine at their home. David is 26 and Elaine is 22, and their story of how they ended up in Taos was so interesting! They met about 18 months ago in Oklahoma City, and during Elaine's last year of nursing school, David and his brother took a trip and stopped in Taos. David fell in love with the town and told Elaine, so the two of them moved to Taos when Elaine graduated. She now works at the hospital and David is a salesman in town, though unfortunately it sounds like they don't like Taos as much now that they live here...
They suggested taking us to a local brewery. It was a really cute establishment run by just one woman! Her beers were delicious and we timed our arrival perfectly as happy hour was just starting. The four us had fun playing Jenga and talking about lots of random things!
We got back to David and Elaine's house after the brewery and made a semi-potluck style dinner, with Josh and I contributing spaghetti and David and Elaine sharing their lasagna and quiche! Elaine had to go to bed pretty early to get up early for work tomorrow morning, but David suggested taking Josh and I to a natural hot springs. It sounded awesome, obviously, so off we went!
David directed us on a 30 minute drive partway down the Rio Grande Gorge, where we parked and then hiked down to the bottom of the gorge. David remembered the trail from memory, since there are no markers and there is barely even a path! After probably a ten minute hike, we were at the hot springs!!! Unfortunately, the only photo that Josh took was this awkward one of David...
...and then the camera battery died :( The hot springs were really wonderful. It even started to snow when we were there! Once we turned off our flashlights, it was obviously extremely dark and very peaceful.
Josh and I shared the same high for the day, which was the hot springs... I think that is a perfect example of the kind of things we are looking to do when we visit a new place: something unique that only the locals know about! My low was being terrified that David was going to murder us in the Gorge when we were following him to the hot springs... I was so relieved when there actually WERE hot springs!!! Josh's low was the weather; it was overcast all day. My "ho" was talking to David and Elaine and learning how free spirited they are! They moved to Taos for fun, found jobs, and they have no idea where they'll go next!!
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