My flight from Mongolia back to the US was long but happily uneventful, and after a great week with my family in Denver I drove to Marie’s place in Mountain View.  My only real stop along the way was to camp for a night at Great Sand Dunes National Park.  The light on the dunes was perfect for photos, but strong winds whipped the sand so violently that, legs stinging and eyes watering, I retreated back to my tent after only an hour.

At Marie’s I put together a plan for my next trip:  making the 3,000-mile drive to Alaska, where I’d try to see four of the National Parks I hadn’t yet visited.