A lot of the massive dunes in this park are not readily accessible.

But the rangers knew it would be impossible to prevent any climbing at all, so they designated one “climbing dune.”

Robyn was determined Ross and Ryan should climb the thing!

It was interesting to watch. A clue for you: the boys are wearing different short pants. Ross is pictured first.

Ross was awkward and hesitant at first. Not hesitant to keep going up, but hesitant to find a way to climb that worked. Walking on Robyn’s arm beside her, his legs were spread so wide for balance that he could hardly move forward! She finally found that pushing him from behind worked pretty well.

He thought so too, and wasn’t willing to stop climbing until he felt the sand level off at the very top!

He enjoyed the run down….and immediately wanted to go back up! This time, part way up, he turned around and walked backwards up most of the hill! Again he insisted on climbing to the very top.

After three runs down the dune, Robyn insisted Ross take a rest…

Ryan, who we call Marco Polo because he always has to be exploring his environment, was a much different kind of problem-climber.

He always has to be balanced as he walks, so climbing a dune was a real challenge. See the fifth picture below to observe his complicated effort to get going uphill!

It was an effort to get up the dune….and called for a celebratory rest!

Going downhill was another interesting effort. He would hardly lift a leg for the next step. You might be able to see a nearly solid trough behind him as he started down.

Ryan eventually felt stable enough to run, and he did the final portion of the downhill very well. He liked it…see the smirk?