Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

Dunes encroaching road

I was stumped as to why there sand dunes here for 40 miles down the coast of Oregon.  Why here?  There is a visitor's center back down in Reedsport so we decided to drive back down yesterday and see what this is all about.  Was a bit nervous about the Kool Coastal Nites classic car show going on, wasn't sure if we could get near the city.  Not a problem.  There are two mountain ranges here, Cascade and Coastal, and for the last 55 million years these mountain ranges plus the ocean's water and surf, plus the weather patterns erodes the mountains down to the ocean where the ocean pushes the sand back up onto land.  A dance that goes on every day.  In the winter ice and snow make the most dramatic images out of the dunes.  Doesn't stop the dune riders, they are out in force in every season.

Umpqua Light House from ocean

Light house up close

Oyster pots

Waiting to register for car show

I did not know there were so many kinds of sand dunes.  We were told if we go to this one area we could climb up to dunes about 500 feet high.  Ah, no thanks - too high.  But, beware of dune buggies.  We were steered to go back to Winchester Bay where we had bought the fish the previous day, drive around the marina and go to the Umpqua Light House and we could get vista views of the dunes and ocean.  Go see the oyster pots where they grow them, see the crab pot point where the fisher people bring in their catch, walk the dunes.  So much to do, so little time!

We walked down to the ocean over a small foredune, a small dune that separates the ocean and the beginning of the major dunes.  Very pretty.  Hiked over the breakwall where the oyster pots are, then as we were standing there on the ocean's edge, could hear the dune buggies roaring to get up Banshee Hill, a very very tall sand dune.  They looked like ants from where we were so decided to drive closer.  Boy, did we get an eyeful!  Saw some car show people waiting their time before registering for Kool Coastal Nite show.

Banshee Hill - small dots are buggies

Family affair

At the staging area we struck up a conversation with two couples who were sitting there with their buggies, they call them sand rails out here.  What a hoot!  You could go to one of the dune buggy tours and ride "mild to wild" trip which means, you can ask for very mild ride where they go slow, no scares.  Or go for the wild - run the dunes.  No thank you. You can ride a dirt bike, your ATV, sand rail, dune buggy (usually one seater), off-road car or vehicle out here.  And we were told that sometimes people bring their RV's into the area but get stuck.  Why would you do that?  They even knew the tow company that comes to get these yah-oo's out of trouble by first name - we had passed them coming into the staging area.  This is big business for the duners.  And families.  Saw three generations of families all playing out on the dunes.

Sand Rail

Young kids riding around

Watch out for traffic!

They said one time their were 4 ambulance calls in one hour - there were so many people out that when someone came over a dune, someone else was coming at them from the other direction.  Wow.

What a fun day, very unplanned.  Learned that the sand dunes that are over the roadway we saw just started this week.  People stop and shovel the sand into their trucks to take home.