We Ain’t Found Sh*t!

When I look back at this collection of photos from our trip to the southern Oregon coast, all I can think about is that scene from Spaceballs (explicit language)…

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hD5eqBDPMDg%3Fautoplay%3D0%26mute%3D0%26controls%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.mustbringsnacks.com%26playsinline%3D1%26showinfo%3D0%26rel%3D0%26iv_load_policy%3D3%26modestbranding%3D1%26enablejsapi%3D1%26widgetid%3D1

While we weren’t forward-thinking enough to bring a comb with us to use in our photos (perhaps we were too focused on the essentials, like clean water, food that can be cooked on an outdoor grill, and cold-weather sleeping bags…), we had a good laugh at the prospect of it.

Who knew that there were enormous sand dunes in Oregon? I didn’t. But they seem endless, stretching all the way to the ocean’s shore.

This group looks like prime desert-combers.

Once you start down the trail from the parking lot at John Dellenback Dunes, it’s like a jungle, minus the heat. It’s kind of dark, lots of greenery closing in around either side of the trail, it’s cool and damp, it smells very earthy. But once you emerge from this jungle trail, it’s like you’re on another planet that is dry and sandy and you can definitely feel the heat of the sun, which admittedly felt really great since I hadn’t been warm so far this entire trip.

The entire time you are in this area, you can hear dune buggy engines in the not-so-far-off-distance. Revving up as they are climbing and summiting the dunes. We passed several dune buggy outfitters on our way to this recreational area, so it must be a popular tourist activity.

Some areas of the dunes were completely smooth and untouched, while other stretches had thousands of footprints and then striping through them were what appeared to be a broad, flat track from a snow sled or snowboard. It was amusing to us that people would bring snow toys to enjoy the sandy dunes, something we normally associate with summer and beaches.

We didn’t spend a ton of time here exploring the dunes, but we did make turkey sandwiches on our tailgate in the parking lot.