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This was our 2021 season cherry popper! What an awesome weekend for weather and fun! We left our house on Thursday morning around 1030am hoping to be in the dunes by 330pm. BUT the traffic on the 15 east bound out of Barstow was terrible! In traffic for almost 2 hours. Looked like there was 2 wrecks when we finally drove past them. Anyway, we arrived at Dumont around 530pm. Set up camp (northeast of vendors row next to the bluffs) started a fire and started to enjoy some music with a few adult beverages 👍! Our daughter and her family camped next to us. My son-in-law is a Vet, prior USAF fire fighter. Friday woke up to a cool breeze and sunshine! Made a pot of coffee for the wife and I. Enjoyed the morning relaxing with coffee. Rolled out the buggy and quads. Took the grand-kids out for a late morning ride in the buggy to the North Pole and back. My grand kids made friends with a little boy about their age at the North Pole. The little boy had a toy quad so my grandsons flocked to him. The little boys mother gave my granddaughter a water, THANK YOU again! Grand-kids found the mail box to Santa and was very excited to write letters and drop them off...unfortunately the kids didn't get a chance to write the letters. Later in the day we went out for a late afternoon ride until sunset. Sunsets are the best in the dunes! One last chill night ride for us! Then returned to camp for more adult beverages and music! Saturday, again woke up to a cool breeze and sunshine! We went on the Veterans group ride, me, my son-in-law and 2 grandsons. My son-in-law went up with the Veterans at Veterans Hill. Very cool that @sandchick put this ride together and thank you for passing out the American Flags to the kids! My grandsons loved the flags! We left Veterans Hill and headed to the North Pole and made our way to Comp Hill and back to camp. We took a break and had lunch and relaxed a while in the RV with the AC running. It was a hot day. After that we took a short ride towards Super Bowl and made a few runs up and down. Then headed to Banshee Hill. Once at Banshee Hill we watched a guy in a 2-seat, VW powered buggy run sideways across the dune. He ended up snapping both tie rods as he turned down hill. We helped him get his buggy off the hill side and to "flat" ground. We took him and his co-pilot back to their camp. He, in turn, drove his Dodge out and towed his buggy back. He didn't want me to tow him back. That night was chill for me and the wife, no rides. My son-in-law took out his family and some night time fun. Sunday, woke up to a cool breeze and slightly cloudy. Made coffee and started packing up to head home! We were on the road and out of the dunes around 1030. We hit Baker for a tank dump and gas up. It was a very good weekend. The worst part was waking up at 3am Sunday morning to loud music! Pics to follow...

Man did I miss Dumont! It’s been a year since the last trip, and this one was one for the record books! Very warm, highs in the mid 80s and never got cool enough in the evenings to have to put on long pants. Bonus! No wind! I had a solid 12 person group and ate like kings, partied too late but didn’t let that stop us from getting up at 7:30 every morning. I’ve been a lifelong dirtbike rider and have only experienced the dens on two wheels…..until NOW….picked up a ‘19 XRC 2 months ago & this was its first time in the dunes. Decided not to commit to paddles yet, wanted to see how it did in four-wheel-drive with tensors. Needless to say I would love to go to paddles but the car performed very well and I managed not to do anything too stupid but definitely had a few pucker moments, I think my buddies had to go change the shorts lol We had five dirt bikes including a recently fixed up CR 500 that I got to ride a few times and had a blast! The dunes weren’t too busy, finally made it by a vendor row to check out all the goodies and picked up a few new flags. Seemed like a lack of sand cars and buggies there from what I remember in previous years. Really cool to see the teeter totter over at veterans hill, but that Buoy that cemented in the middle of the flats could probably use more reflectors as it isn’t necessarily in a predictable spot like the north and south poles. We always camp at the little dunes because we like to go into death Valley or go over to explore some of the funky old cabins to the west. Warning there’s a nasty rutted out super soft spot and people were getting stuck but usually not for long. Scored some free wood but of course left plenty of free wood afterwards when we left yesterday. Can’t wait to go back! Here’s some pictures