Heber Dunes

Bennett got to go on his very first school field trip last Friday and I had to got to go with him. The school asks that the K and 1st grade parents take their children if they want to go on the earned field trip and since we're new to the area, I figured it would be a great way to explore what's around us too!

B's school has a thing called privilege and students earn it with grades, behavior, etc. B got the honor about 3 days after we got there....so I'm thinking they were just being nice to include us---which I'll gladly take since I got a fun date with my son that I didn't have to plan!

First we met with some park rangers who explained about some of the animals that live in this desert area, how the area became a dune area (El Centro is below sea level and the dunes were about 10 minutes from where we live...if that gives you any indication!)

Really nice ranger/information building

B's favorite--the desert fox!

Largest raccoon I've ever seen! 

Then we got to go on a hike. We were told to look for tracks. We found beetle tracks and  a few larger tracks, but nothing too big!  Then we got to learn about scat--animal poop. Since we already have a book called Who Pooped in the Park? about the Grand Canyon animals, we were good to go on that knowledge!  We learned about the irrigation canals that are all over this area of farmland and how it comes from the mountains near us in Mexico or the Colorado River.

It was definitely fun to run on the dunes!

Bored of the irrigation canal talk since he wasn't allowed to throw in sand/rocks!

More fun to play in the sand!

Gathering an audience to play with!

Next up was lunch and then a fun ride on "The Deuce"--a fun Army truck owned by one of the parents!  Fun for B and me to get to go on our first dune ride together!  The other kids with us thought it was just another day---to us Texans, it was a sand roller coaster!

The Deuce

Ready to ride!

Oh dear!

This rec area had really a really nice picnic area.

Not the best video since I was trying to hold on, keep B from hitting his head on the rail, and video at the same time, but you get the idea!

Park Rangers with the animals. The animals have to stay in the bags when not in use because the fur will get eaten off by some insect!

We had a great time and can't wait for B to earn privilege again and learn something else about our new area!  And of course...now we need to meet people who own dune buggies so we can go for a ride while we're out here in the desert!