Dune season is coming: late summer at Imperial, Little Sahara and the coast

The end of August is when dune riders start looking at calendars. Imperial Sand Dunes in California is listed by the BLM El Centro Field Office as an October to April area, and the reason is simple: summer heat there is described as genuinely dangerous rather than merely unpleasant. The weeks before the season opens are when the sand is at its loosest after months of wind, and when the staging areas are emptiest.

Wind is the thing to think about on any dune field after a long dry summer. Faces that were firm and rideable in spring will have been reshaped, and the razorbacks and witches' eyes that catch people out move from year to year. Treat the first ride of the season on any dune area as a new place, ride it in daylight, and slow down over every crest until you have seen what is on the other side.

Imperial requires a permit in the peak season, sold weekly or seasonally, along with whip flags and a green sticker. Whether that permit window has opened yet on any given weekend, and what the current fee is, are questions for the field office rather than for us; confirm with the managing agency before you go.

Little Sahara Recreation Area in Utah is managed by the BLM Fillmore Field Office and sits at a higher elevation than Imperial, so its comfortable window arrives earlier in the autumn. The place file lists spring and autumn as its best seasons, with a day-use or annual fee charged at the entrance and whip flags generally required on the dunes. Sand Mountain is the steep draw; the rest is open free-riding across sagebrush flats and dune.

Further north, Killpecker Sand Dunes in Wyoming and St. Anthony Sand Dunes in Idaho run on a late spring through autumn calendar and close down with weather rather than heat. The approach roads to Killpecker are noted as poor in wet or snowy conditions, so the first autumn storms are what end the season there, not a posted date. Idaho requires an OHV sticker at St. Anthony and non-residents need a non-resident certificate.

On the coast, the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is a year-round area with a difference: some riding areas close seasonally for snowy plover nesting. Those closures are set by the Siuslaw National Forest and the dates and boundaries change, so a map from last year is not a map for this year. Check the current closure order with the forest before you plan a route through the open areas near Winchester Bay.

Whatever the dune field, the machine preparation is the same. Sand is the hardest environment for an air filter in the whole sport, and the site's maintenance guidance for side-by-sides is to check and clean the filter every 25 hours normally and every 10 hours in severe use. Sand is severe use. A whip flag is a legal requirement at most of these areas and a good idea at all of them.