Today we went to Dumont Dunes, California to spend the day with one of Karl's friends and his family. They have a toy hauler and a few toys to ride out there, and are spending the long weekend camping and having some sand fun. I'll be really honest in that I had absolutely no desire whatsoever to go, but reluctantly agreed to give Madison a new experience.
This place is BLM land maintained by the State of California, and is about 2 hours from my front door. The nearest city is Baker, CA, but you can easily get there via a back road near Pahrump, NV. I couldn't believe the number of people there... and I couldn't believe the level of dust as we descended into the valley where the dunes are located. It was like approaching Los Angeles, that grey cloud of smog you see when you start to get close... if you've seen that, you know what I mean.
We spent pretty much the whole day there...and believe it or not, I got on a quad that looked like this:
Karl's friend's 12-year-old daughter guided me on her own bike, and gave me the safety run-down and decided we'd hit one dune where I could see the entire valley. I'm thinking to myself "The entire valley?", as I'm afraid of heights... The ride was really fun until we decided to go down the dune. I got a little stuck in the sand, and pretty much freaked at the height I was at going down, so I froze. She promptly parked her bike on the hill, came to where I was, told me to move back in the seat and she got me down the hill... then hoofed it back up to her bike and met me at the bottom. She was a fantastic guide the whole ride, and she pretty much saved my ass, LOL.Madison had a pretty good time but she was a little bored. She didn't have the comforts of home and she was refusing to wear a helmet, so there was no riding at all for her. We're all a little tired, sunburnt and I'm a little sore in my upper-body from the ride (I know, what a wimp!). I'll admit I did enjoy myself today, but I'm still a dirt and/or mud kind of girl. The sand just wasn't my thing, although I certainly wouldn't mind riding an off-road vehicle on some dirt trails (no mountain ledges). I'll leave you with a view of one of the racing dunes where we sat and watched for awhile. There's more pictures to check out at Flickr, but unfortunately, none of me riding the quad!
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4 comments:
Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun. I know I couldn't have gotten on that quad. I'm too afraid of heights and speed.
Then again, I'm not sure I would have headed out there in the first place! On the front end, it doesn't sound like something I would have jumped at, but would have been glad I had done it on the back end.
What a blast! I'm glad you were in my State for the day :)
I love quads! Wooo Hooo! They are so fun -- especially in the mud. Nothing like it!
The rest of it sounds like fun, though I understand the dislike of sand. Can't wait to hear more about it.
This place looks just beautiful. I would have loved it! I've never driven a quad or anything like it, but hell I'd do it, if I had the opportunity.
It's great that Maddy got to check it out too. Too bad she didn't at least try going for a ride though. Ah well, ya live and learn. If nothing else, you all got to spend time doing something new.
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