Lower Sand Creek Lake - Great Sand Dunes National Park - NPS PHOTO BY KRIS ILLENBERGER

Things have been really slow at work the last couple of weeks.  Sometime last week, I started looking at places to go on vacation.  I looked around Colorado and New Mexico. Doing the typical vacation thing of staying in a hotel was just going to be out of my price range.  So I started looking at camping.  That was a little more economical, put still more than I wanted to spend.  I then looked at some national parks and learned that I can camp for a week for the $3 entrance fee.  That’s more like it.

So I decided on the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  There are sand dunes, which I didn’t know they had in Colorado, wetlands, grasslands, forests, and mountains.  So I borrowed some gear, spent about 2-3 hours yesterday getting my pack loaded and trying it on to make sure it’s not too heavy.  I’ve got my camera and a small travel tripod to document the trip.

I’m looking forward to this trip to get a break from work and just all the things going on right now.  Things have gotten into a  rut spiritually, mentally, and physically.  So on the one hand I’m excited about getting away and being refreshed.  On the other, I’ve got this lingering trepidation.  Not so much of hiking by myself, or bears, or snakes, or falls.  Those are there but in the back of my mind.

The fear at the forefront is being still and dealing with my thoughts.  I have increased the pace of my life over the last year or so and I find it harder and harder to slow down and be quiet.  So the prospect of 6+ days of isolation, free of the distractions of our society slightly unnerves me.  I guess I know that there are some things that God has told me and I’ve been to busy to hear or I’ve blatantly disobeyed and now I’ve got to work through the restlessness I’ve been experiencing.

So I’m apprehensively looking forward to my trip and excited about what’s going to happen despite the discomfort.