Trail Reports : Oregon National Dunes
Oregon Coast, ORBy: Mike Serpe
The regionally famous Oregon Dunes is the Northwest’s answer to the CA desert or Pismo Beach.
Separated into two sections that follow the coastline between the breakers and Route 1 (PCH), the Oregon Dunes seem endless. The Northern Section, which is smaller in size, is on average, 3 miles wide, but 20 miles long. The Southern Section is also at an average of 3 miles wide, but goes 40 miles or so in length! If traveling the coast in your 4WD, definitely get off the highway, and take the dunes and the beach for this entire distance, totally more than 55 miles straight down to Coos Bay, where one can find even more OHV access areas. The dunes, some up to 200 feet high are unbelievable. The sand is dry and you surely do sink in! You will need to run your tires at about 15 PSI for best traction (+/- 5psi depending on weight).
You have three choices of terrain at the Dunes National Park. The first choice would be to tour the dunes themselves, which surely requires a compass, or a GPS. You will find that often you may not be able to reach the direction you wish to go without going around some of the dunes that just are not climbable for the G wagen (sand rails with VW and Porsche power will show you how it’s done). This is the only place I’ve ever been in my Gwagen where a Humvee would have been more well suited. However, the G does well enough, you just cannot go very fast in the dunes. It’s best to have a winch, and a Bruce boat anchor. Use the anchor to burry in the sand, attach the winch hook to it, and pull towards. There’s actually a product called Pull-pal that does this as well, but I thought recycling the sailboat’s anchor was more creative, and it works great! Don’t use a Danforth anchor however!
The second type of terrain is a network of trails that goes through the marshland between the dunes and the beach in the Southern section of the park. In the Northern Section, the dunes go right to the beach. In both sections there are access roads (unmarked) that go out to the beach without going over dunes, however they are loaded with woop-d-doos, so beware of your cargo, and flying moto-x bikes! The roads I wish to refer to are, again, in the Southern section, and network in and out of marsh land, brush, and packed dune terrain.
There are crazy deep water holes!!! Get out the snorkel, some are really deep. This of course, depends on the season you visit in. We were able to make it through all holes but one, with 32 inch tires, but it was coming in the doors on a couple of them.
Lastly, there’s always the beach, which again, makes a nice detour for traveling off Route 1 if touring the coast. We were traveling south from WA to CA, down the entire coast, so it wasn’t too hard to include this into our travel. The beach is beautiful, and a great place for G picnic or camp. The winds can be high, and do tend to come out of the Northwest (cold Alaska air) at times. However, summers require no more than a sweatshirt on windy days. We had no problem getting the Gwagen up to 55 mph on the beach, which was actually about the same speed we maintained on Route 1!
Ratings:
G Access: Good, but can be slow in deep sand, and some dunes are impassible
Beach is easy, trails can be easy or very hard, but only in flooded areas where depth is an issue
4WD: oh yes, and low tire pressure is required
Winch: highly recommended if traveling on your own, but only with a pull-pal or anchor (there’s no trees)
Buddy: higly recommended with tow straps and shovel, also high lift jack, and pieces of plywood are great to add to the cargo hold
Body Damage: Just don’t flip (very hard to do), otherwise, no risk at all
Lockers: Yes, rear most all the time in dunes, not on beach.
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