Une Envie de Sel

 Day 3 of our autumn road trip: The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

 One of the many most beautiful natural wonders of our fair state.

 After a night of chilly camping outside of the Dunes...

 A glorious morning of frolicking in the silken sands.

 This is Q's favorite natural sandbox, being, as she is, a child of the central latitudes, born and raised in agrarian regions (both in China and, later, in the USA) distant from the sea.

 Though Mike was born in Boston, and I in New York - close to the sea for both of us, we were both raised in interior regions, and so we take sand as we can find it....

and appreciate its magic all the more.

 A self-contained sandhill oasis in the valley South of the dunes...

 ...becomes a play-place for us all on a quiet autumn day in the national monument.

 These are the moments in which we appreciate how fortunate we are to inhabit this earth.

 There is no better babysitter for the Q than a sandbox...particularly a sandbox approximately 12,000 years old and covering some 19,000 acres.

Oh, this astonishing planet that we live on.