Halloween at the Imperial Sand Dunes

By Jon Crowley, DuneGuide.com

Gale force winds hit Glamis on Tuesday before Halloween and didn’t really let up for good until Wednesday night.  The result when I arrived on Wednesday afternoon were ripples as far as the eye could see.  Glorious buttery smooth dunes!  This was going to be good.

Halloween marks the traditional beginning of the season for off-roading in the southern California desert, and I was excited to get back out in the dunes again.

I planned to meet up with a large group of Polaris RZR owners from RZRForums.net and had brought along my 2008 Polaris RZR and 2010 Polaris RZR S. Most of the group were camping over across from the Glamis Beach Store at the UTVCrap.com camp. The location was a perfect spot for all of us to spread out and not worry about riders buzzing your camp all night long.  You do have to get used to the train running at all hours though.

After unloading on Wednesday, a handful of us went for a ride over to Gecko Loop to catch up with a bunch more RZRForums.net guys.  This is where most of the big horsepower guys were camped.  A few MCX Turbo RZRs and even a RZR with a Turbo Weber engine swap from Wasteland Performance.  After getting that group motivated we all went on a ride in the big dunes over to Osborne Overlook.  The wind had been blowing from the north, and new 2 foot slipfaces made transitions a bit more challenging for those in the group that aren’t big dune riders. I found it a bit tougher to lead the group through the dunes as well.  Having just met everyone and not knowing their comfort level, and with no tracks to follow it had me wondering if  they all thought I was nuts or a wimp. After stopping for a rest break, it was clear that everyone was having a good time.

On Thursday, the RZRForums.net met up at Oldsmobile Hill for a little hill shooting and once everyone had made it, it was time to ride. All the turbo guys were present and they were hungry for good hill for some competition.  We were off to China Wall. Although several of us had been there before, no one was confident in their navigation without GPS to get us there with 15 RZRs in a convoy. John Angel from UTVCrap.com reluctantly agreed to take the lead and we were off.  For those of you that haven’t been to China Wall before, it is several miles through some pretty tight dunes from Oldsmobile Hill. And again we had some smooth dunes in front of us. I find it hard to lead a group of much more than six or eight vehicles, but John did a great job. We made a few stops to collect up the group, and found our way without any issue.

Once at China Wall, the turbo RZRs were in their element.  China Wall is real steep and often pretty soft up near the top.  It is a workout for a stock RZR with paddle tires to make it up. I gave it a try in my new Holz/Kroyer Stage III RZR and made it up no problem. I was running ITP’s Sand Star tires front and rear mounted on their new T9 Pro Mod wheel.  This package is very light and does great for tight turn type duning.  If straight  hill shooting is your bag, I think straight paddles may be a better bet for the rear.  I prefer to ride hard in the dunes over drag racing up a hill.

The turbo RZRs definitely haul the mail and it was fun to watch them race for a bit.  It gave them enough material for hours of smack talking too.

Once we decided to head out, the group split up and I lead a group heading back to UTVCrap.com camp and the rest made their way back to Gecko Loop.  I was having a good time running out in the washes and through the trees until I heard a sounds I didn’t like.  John pulled up next to me and said, “uh oh!’ Expecting something bad, I got out and found that my drain plug had fallen out a ways back and I was out of oil.  You have got to be kidding me! We hooked up a tow strap and I was towed back in camp.  The only saving grace to the situation is I had a 2010 RZR S with me so the weekend wasn’t lost. My RZR is back in the shop now and I have my fingers crossed that only minor damage occurred.

Back at camp, we loaded my RZR on the trailer and I quickly turned my attention to the RZR S. I was supposed to meet up with Fox Racing Shox at the Dune Tour to try out some new shocks on the RZR S. Fox recently came out with some new shock technology for their UTV shocks called Position Sensitive Dampening. Basically, the shock acts as normal until the stroke reaches the last 20% of, then the pressure increases making it much harder to compress.  The effect is similar to a bump stop, but it is all built in. This setup is available for the rear of the Polaris RZR S and also in 8.5″ and 10″ lengths.  For the front, we threw on a set of their normal 2.0 DSC shocks that have high and low speed compression adjustment.

I went on several rides with this setup and let me tell you these shocks make a huge difference. I felt much more confident in the vehicle’s ability to handle g-outs and also those witches eyes that seem to come up out of nowhere. These shocks are also very adjustable – there are 24 “clicks” of adjustment to soften and harden your ride. If you are into riding hard at the dunes, I would highly recommend checking them out.

Fox was also there to support owners of their shocks by helping them adjust and tune their shocks. Not only were they helping with externally adjustable shocks, but they were also doing revalves, setting ride-height and changing springs. And for anyone on an ATV, they were even letting users take a set of Float shocks out on test drives.  Very cool.

On Friday, I also looked up Muzzys Performance.  They had their big rig down from Oregon and were showing off lots of their performance products and also offering up free installation on any exhaust purchase.  That is quite the deal! I was busy checking out their new Teryx Dual Pro-Pipe Exhaust and 916cc Stroker kit when Rob Muzzy walked up.  The Teryx I am building for the King of the Hammers race is getting an 840cc Muzzys engine in it and I was drooling over the 916cc stroker crank in the display. Although I have driven a few 2008 840cc Teryxs, I haven’t been able to get behind the wheel in a 2009 big bore Teryx yet.  When Rob mentioned that they had brought down their 916cc 2009 Teryx I got all excited.  He asked if I wanted to take it for a spin and I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  “Heck ya!” was my response.

This Teryx was outfitted with a Muzzys 916cc stroker engine, Muzzys Pro Dual Exhaust, a Funco long travel suspension, Fox 2.0 shocks and DWT Doonz tires.  Other than that it was stock (lol!). I pulled out of Glamis Flats and headed in the direction of Oldsmobile Hill.  The awesome exhaust note of a Teryx with Muzzys exhaust was familiar, but I could tell their was something more menacing within. Once clear of camp I jumped into the baby dunes and hit the skinny pedal.  Did the front end just feel light or was I imagining it?  I crested another transition and hit the gas again as I rounded another bowl and felt it again.  WOW! I have never been in a Teryx that felt this nimble in the dunes.  I two wheel drive I was roosting around and up everywhere.

I brought it back to Rob with a big smile on my face and told him that he had created a winner. I twisted Joey D’s (UTVUnderground.com) arm to take it for a spin later that day so I could get some in car video of Muzzys’ Teryx in action. Stay tuned for that video to appear here on UTV Weekly soon!  One thing is for sure, I can’t wait to try out my Muzzys big bore engine in my race Teryx.

The rest of Friday and Saturday was full of more rides and in-car videos. I was able to check out Brian Bush’s Rotax powered Rhino (Rotax Your Rhino debuts during Halloween at the Imperial Sand Dunes), and also Rick Alger’s beautiful Arctic Cat Prowler 1000 (Rick’s Arctic Cat Prowler 1000).

According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), there was about a 45 percent drop in the number of people who played in the Imperial Sand Dunes during the Halloween weekend as compared to other years. The BLM believes it is probably due to the economy, but that is really hard to tell.

In past years where Halloween fell on a Saturday, visitation estimates would be over 100,000 people.  This year, the BLM estimated that 64,000 visited the dunes. It still seemed like there were plenty of people there to me.

More info about the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area can be found at:

• Glamis Camping Area Guide
• ISDRA GPS Coordinates
• ISDRA Dune Guide

---

Tags: Bureau of Land Management, Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area

Category: Featured, Trail Rides