Beach, But No Water - Monahans

In Idaho we lived with natural wonders all around us.  The Snake River Canyon was on our front door step, the "South Hills" recreation area less than an hour away, lava tubes to explore a little over an hour away and the Rocky Mountains, Sawtooth National Recreation Areas peaking in the distance.  My only complaint is we never had enough time to enjoy all of it fully, but we can always return to beautiful Idaho for visits.

Now that we have moved to a new area we're ready to explore our new surroundings.  I've asked around and searched the internet to find out what outdoor destinations are within our reach.  There are a few places we can visit, but since the dry Texan desert is mostly privately owned and dedicated to oil production, outdoor entertainment is at a premium.  We've already explored many city parks in the area, but we really wanted to see something different and a little more exciting, so last weekend we headed out  Monahans Sandhills State Park.

The park is located a brief 45 minutes West of Midland just off the interstate.  The entrance fee is $3/adult and is paid at the visitor center which has educational information, a nature trail with labeled flora, and sand disks for rent or purchase.  The road accessible area of the park quite small, but the entirety of the park is open to explore without restriction.  Most of the park's sand dunes are covered with small bushes  (Shinoak trees, but in the rest of the world they only qualify as bushes) and other native plants. These dunes are considered inactive dunes, but some areas have active dunes which are nothing but pristine white sand peaking high above the desert.

Zoey and John Sled-sinking

There are several picnic areas for day-trippers to enjoy and a camping area for those who can't get their fill of sand all in one day. We chose to picnic at the largest picnic area near a large area of active dunes.  As soon as Zoey's feet hit the ground, she bolted toward the hill of sand.  She didn't stop running until she peaked the dune and we found her at the top rolling in the sand and running her hands through it. Almost immediately she asked to take off her shoes andbecause the sand is a soft and powdery, I soon joined her and  found it was easier to tread barefoot than dump a 1/2 pound of sand out of my shoes every 10 steps. I i think we both loved the feel of the sand between our toes.  Thinking sliding down the dunes is a great idea, (after all why else would they offer disks if it wasn't great), we purchased a sand disk and took it for a few runs.  It turns out that when the sand is that soft, you sink, not slide.  After a few sinking attempts, we abandoned that idea.

Admiring the view.

Zoey had the time of her life.  She ran up and down the dunes, made sand angels, barrel rolled to the bottoms, and drew pictures of "snakes" in the sand.  Mom and dad had a great time too, especially watching her.  Leaving the park Zoey asked if next time we can visit the beach with water, Texas has those too, but we'll have to drive a little longer to get there.

Sand Angel!!