Fun on the Dunes

I’ve  talked about recreating here on The Dunes,  so today I wanted to share a few views of what that looks like.  It’s a Saturday as I write this — I’m obviously writing a couple days ahead of publication — so we are still in the middle of the 4th of July weekend.  And recreating goes hummingly along.

This shot is from Horsfall Beach — a smaller mixed use area that sees about 30 ‘campsites’ and a bunch of day use sites all crammed together on a hot piece of asphalt.

For OHV’ing this is all you really need to have fun.  The OHV trailers are some open and some enclosed, some holding a single quad and others holding as many as half a dozen quads and motorcycles and sometimes a complete machine shop!

OHV’ers come in single RV’s, pairs, trios and more.  It’s not all that unusual to see 4 full sized RV’s, pull behind trailers, or 4th wheel trailers corralled like conestoga wagons on the prairie with half a dozen or more pickup trucks and as many quads all crammed into 3, 4, 5, or more adjacent painted rectangles on an asphalt field.  It’s really kind of bizarre.

There are miles and miles of dunes out there.  The “Dunes” recreation area extends over 40 miles North and South and a couple miles wide in places.  There’s plenty of room but having said that there’s a certain male testosterone factor that sees a lot of folks roaring here and there in front of their parking lot audience — showing off how fast or steep or noisy they are.  Occasionally someone will attempt to show off and flop — and we’ve watched a couple kewl looking trucks go slinking off in embarrassment.

All the recreation here isn’t NOISY!  There were people on the beach when we were there — I liked these instances of just a few folks on a wide open beach. The winds were fairly still today, less than 5 mph — a rarity lately.  1/4 mile down the beach is the end of the OHV area, so these beachcombers had no worries about being run over, and in fact over the sound of the sea you couldn’t even hear the OHV’s from that distance.

There were surf fishermen and shell collectors, dog owners taking their beasts for an afternoon constitutional and lovers hand in hand.  All the usual forms of holiday beaching.   
It’s lovely here this time of year.  Everyone says it’s the best time of year.  Our temps have consistently been in the mid 60’s and with the bright sun and the wind it’s confusing.  It sometimes seems much warmer than that.

Have a great day, and I’ll talk with you tomorrow.