This
post represents another installment in the series detailing the second of our
three cross country National Parks camping trips with travel trailer in tow. At the time of this trip in 2010, our son,
Ryan, was 16 and our daughter, Kyra, was 11.
Regular readers of this blog know that I spend a lot of time planning
our travels, paying particular attention to campgrounds that are the best fit
for our preferences and specific sites within those campgrounds. Some people view a campsite simply as a place
to catch some z’s and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that because they
often are. To me, the campsite is an
integral part of our traveling experience, unless we’re specifically making time
between point A and point B, in which case we do need just a place to rest our
weary selves. Yes, Wally World has been
our “campground” of choice on more than one occasion. But I enjoy selecting campsites that I know
our family will really like and make the most of – whether that’s because of
the seclusion, the view or the easy access to a lake or hiking trail.
Because I had identified Piñon Flats within Great Sand Dunes
National Park as our go-to campground for this visit, I spent a great deal of time
looking at the photos of the sites there on Recreation.gov. Many had beautiful views of the dunes and the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains behind them, but the sites tended to be smaller and
there were not a lot that I felt we could comfortably fit in with our 30’ travel
trailer. I was having a difficult time
deciding on a site based on what I was seeing on Recreation.gov and I had
questions on more than one of the sites I was considering. What to do?
Take a chance, book a site and keep our fingers crossed we would
fit? Play it safe and stay at a private
RV park outside the National Park?
Neither one of those options appealed to me and I decided to try
something I had never done before.
