Hiking the Kelso Sand Dunes

Today is Memory Lane Friday, a weekly blog carnival where you can blog about your memories and link up.  This week does not have a theme.

Six years ago, prekids, we were on a road trip and had one last day to play before flying out of Las Vegas.  So we decided to camp out in the Mojave desert. 

The Mojave is desert just like you'd imagine.

Acres of sand, small brush, dry arid heat, and blue skies.

Mysterious.

After choosing a camp, we headed out to find a hike, and decided on the Kelso Sand Dunes.

These sand dunes are huge. 

That little black dot in the middle?  Me!

Hiking up sand dunes is not an easy matter.  Every step you take buries your ankles in sand.  Your shoes fill quickly, and then you have to decide....shoes on and full of sand, or barefoot on the grainy, burning heat?

Temps were at least 100* this day, but it didn't stop us.

I look at this picture, and it just seems surreal that I was ever there.

Paul wore his snake gaiters in case we encountered any rattlesnakes.  We didn't, much to our disappointment.  Not that we're idiots who would've messed with a snake.  We just would've liked to have been distant observers.  Did you ever watch Venom ER?  I was really hoping to encounter Sean Bush, the snake doctor, out there prowling for snakes or performing a rescue.

If you have to endure the bite of a rattlesnake, at least you can be lucky enough to be treated by such a cute doctor, right?  ;-)

The thing that makes the Kelso dunes really unusual is that they are 'booming' dunes.  I can't remember exactly, but I think there is only one other set of dunes that boom.  What happens is that when you slide down them, they make a booming sort of trumpeting noise.

So fun!  If you enjoy hiking and are ever out in that corner on Nevada and California, it's definitely worth a side excursion.  It'll be an unforgetable hike!

Want to participate in Memory Lane Friday?  You can link up here:

Next week's topic is "Something You Hated".