Glamis Sand Dunes Trip #3

I had a good time out at the Glamis Sand Dunes this weekend. It was nice and sunny though it was very windy on Saturday. Blayne's new dune buggy is very powerful and fast. I kept whooping and hollering, I couldn't contain myself. It was very fun.


This time I remembered to completely zip up my tent when I set up camp. Last time I closed the entrance but left the mesh widows uncovered. Later, I found the entire interior of the tent and my sleeping bag covered with a fine dust which had sieved through the fine mesh covering the windows. That sucked.


We went on a real fun night ride out to Competition Hill. A very steep, high dune that everyone races up real fast. I went up a few times with Blayne and then with Jeff. Jeff was able to make it up the hill in his Jeep Wrangler. It was allot slower and scarier but very cool.


I rode back to camp in the Jeep Wrangler, but Blayne accidentally led us off the main Sand Road into the Dune Field. We had a crazy time going down many really sharp and steep razorbacks in the Wrangler. We almost got stuck once but were able to power out. All the dune buggy riders were congratulating Jeff on his amazing driving skills when we got back to camp.


I also went on a long ride with a ATV Sunday morning. It is very beautiful out in the dunes, like being on the moon.

Glamis Sand Dunes Trip #2

I went out to Glamis again for the weekend.


My younger brother, Joel, came out with me this time and he brought his motorcycle with him. He had to put a special paddle tire on the rear wheel so he could ride in the soft sand of Glamis. He normally rides on dirt at Ocotillo Wells so the sand was very different for him. He said it is way more tiring and takes more balance and control.

Glamis Sand Dunes Trip #1

I finally made it out to the desert again this weekend. This time it was the sand dunes at Glamis. It was further north of the spot we went to last time, but still part of the same Algodones dune field. Chelsea and Forrest came with Jeremy and me this time.


The weather was perfect and it was very beautiful, especially at sunset. We went on a night ride and it is quite an adrenaline rush dropping into steep bowls barely illuminated by small headlights. I also went on a fun dune buggy ride. The driver was a maniac and we ended up blowing an axle going up a steep dune. It was great but we had to push it a ways back for the tow.


My boss, Blayne, bought rainbow flags for his ATV quads, not knowing that they can stand for gay pride. (The quads have flags on tall sticks so others can see you coming over the top of dunes sooner to prevent head-on-collisions.) Anyway, I noticed the flags but didn't say anything because I thought maybe I was wrong about what they meant. My friend, Jeremy, and I were out cruising and we stopped to help push a stuck pickup out of a hole when another truck came speeding by. Some asshole stuck his head out the window, flipped us off and screaming out that we were fuckin homos and should get the hell out of here. We thought, "What the Fuck!" but then we realized that they had seen our rainbow flags and thought we were gay.


We had a good laugh later, but it sucked that people are still so bigoted out there. It's funny that the only time people are like that is when they are in big groups or speeding by. Cowards!

Algodones Sand Dunes in Imperial County, CA

Jeremy and I went to the Algodones Sand Dunes off of Interstate 8 at Gray's Well, CA about a half hour's drive from the Arizona border. This huge dune field is one of the locations where they filmed Star Wars scenes for Luke's planet, Tatooine.


The dunes here are beautiful with big bowls and high ridges. We went for long rides on ATV Quads. It is a surreal experience being surrounded by hills of sand as far as the eye can see.


During the heat of the day, we ended up swimming in the canal that carries water from the Colorado River to the large farms of Imperial County.