MLK is a very unstable holiday weekend as far as attendance. Some years it has been heavy others it has been almost an off weekend. I haven't gotten a report of how crowded or un-crowded new Years was, that is usualyy a good indicator of the MLK weekend. Keep in mind this last halloween weekend was one of the busiest in several years yet I thought Thanksgiving was about 60% of normal. So to cut to the bottom line, don't worry about the amount of people as you cannot control it and you can have fun in spite of the turn-out. It's nice if it's a light weekend you can get in some fast hard rides if that's what your into and even if it's busy you can always find areas for the kids to ride. So it looks like I will be making that weekend and as to the area between bathroom's 12 vs. 9 is that if you come further into the road past 12 almost to #10 and make a left you can find hard ridges out almost all the way to 9. You wll always have one or two dips to go through but just goose it a little if you see tracks showing soft sand. It's been dry so I usually give it a little more steam through the lower parts just to be on the safe side.
You will find in my opinion a large difference most of the time between camping near any of the fingers and camping back near 9 or 12. It's usually less dust(espically if everybody obeys the camp speed limit) and less noise and BS. I am always near #9 and your more than welcome to stop by and say hi, catch a ride or have a chat. Look for awhite 40' Alfa M/H with a long white trailer and a red sand car. that would be us.
Terry