The Dunes

Since we've been to several beaches in Oregon, we thought it would be interesting to stay a night in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Oregon's sand dunes are beach sand which winds off the ocean have whipped into huge piles. There is a small amount of vegetation growing on some -- scrub brush and grass, but many are totally bare heaps of sand. Huge sand castles.

The campground however was lush forest, with six or seven different loops. On only one loop are allowed ATV's -- or dune buggies. The other six are for regular campers and very quiet.


There are access trails from one part of the campground to the sand dunes for the ATV's. Folks like me, on foot with Chorro, take a different trail which goes by two lakes.



Then, quite suddenly, there are dunes.


They are really quite beautiful, very sculptured and inviting.


We climbed to the top of the one nearest the lake and captured these views. The darker blue in the distance is the ocean, about two miles away. At first I intended to hike over to it, but when I discovered that there were MANY ups and downs between, I changed my mind.


Hiking over a sand dune is a bit like hiking in snow. Each step sinks into the sand and slips backwards. Climbing the dune is slow for me. Chorro does it differently, he leaps and bounds uphill or down.


The dunes look like snow, too, although not as white. Dirty snow perhaps? And the ATV's race and 'high mark' steep hillsides like snowmobiles. This reminded me of standing on top of Monument Peak in Montana, looking down on Blue Lake, except that my 'dune' was probably not even 1100 feet, while Monument is 11,000.

These dune buggies give a little perspective on the size of the dunes. If you look closely you can see the high marking up the very steep sides, which lose some of their dimensionality in snapshots.



Chorro and I had a great hike, but I will not be looking for my own dune buggy soon. I find too much enjoyment in silence and the simple sounds of the birds and the breeze and the distant ocean. But we're happy to have had this experience today.

And tomorrow is a new day.