Congrats on making your first trip to Glamis! Now that you have unloaded, set up camp, gassed up, and ready to ride where should you go first? Hopefully you are camping with friends that have previous experience in the dunes that you can follow and learn. If you are solo we can give you some easy pointers to get out and back.
Start slow and learn quickly
Riding through the desert in any vehicle is exhilarating. But to increase speed you must learn how to read the terrain. 1st simple rule to follow is Never go straight over a dune unless you are 100% positive what is on the back side. You always want to crest the top of the hill by turning right or left at the top never going straight over. A simple way to think of it is never out drive your vision. I see so many people think the dune continues to roll over like the side you drove up and it drops off into a witches eye or to the flat, typically ending someones weekend with catastrophic failure.We have a little blog here that will help explain what to watch out and look for. If you are camping next to the store a great little place is the small dunes just west of you. These little dunes will give you an understanding of how to turn and snake your way through sand dunes. Another idea is to head out follow HWY 78 west cross over the entrance to the flats and continue west on sand highway. After about a 1/4 mile you will see a fork that will head to the left. This is the road entrance to Oldsmobile hill. Follow this path through all the whoops till you see the hill on the right. Congrats you have made it to Oldsmobile Hill.
Another option is to follow Sand Highway parallel to HWY 78 crossing over Osbourne lookout road just west of Competition hill. The Sand Highway will run for about 5mi till you run into Gecko rd and the ranger station. As you travel along if you look to the south you will see all the sand dunes that you can play in. Once you hit Gecko Rd you can turn around and head back to camp or you can head south and follow Gecko Rd until you reach Roadrunner loop to understand all the camping options in Glamis. If you travel further south from Roadrunner this will take you down to Gordons Well and the restaurant Duners Diner about 20mi south.
Easy tips to know where you are
The biggest tip that will help whether you are solo or with a Group that you get separated from is to get to the tallest dune by you. Do not keep driving aimlessly trying to find your way, get to the top of a tall dune and wait. It is easier to see where you are and for others to see you. If solo and need to get back to camp have piece of mind that you have borders on 3 sides that you can use to guide you back. The highway north, the train tracks to the east, and Gecko Rd/ Canal to the West. Further off in the distance you have the Chocolate Mountains to the north east further off is the Black Mountains to the south East and then across the valley far off to the west is the Laguna mountains. Along with the sun always being to the south during the winter you can always have a sense of direction. When your on high points always scan the horizon to locate the landmarks to help keep your bearings and direction. You will see the store tower that can guide you back to the store. or if you see the highway you can travel north till you hit sand highway and then head right or left depending on if your camped at the store or left to Gecko rd. The problem with cruising through the dunes is that many times the smoothest line is going to spin you around in circles and leave you wondering which direction to go.
As you get away from camp and get into the middle of the sand dunes you will find that the hills get bigger, steeper, softer sand, and longer. Your speed through the bigger dunes will need to be faster and reaction time quicker to safely maneuver through. This is where the Fun really begins. Cell phones will mostly have coverage in dunes, but there are dead spots with no cellular service. A trick is to download google maps offline while you have service at camp. This will allow the Blue GPS dot to continue to move over a map that has been loaded on your phone. Believe me it happens that people get turned around. Sitting by the fire at night people have rolled up and asked what wash they were in and we were camped on Pad 2.5, the complete opposite side of the dunes.
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