Desert season is just about here and the masses will converge onto the Glamis sand dunes for its first big holiday; Halloween. How ready are you? 

      Time to wrap up your summer projects and rebuilds on your desert toys. Fluids changed, filters cleaned, and all maintenance checks done! 

      If you’re an avid dune user that visits the Glamis sand dunes there are a few changes for this year.

      First the yearly pass (still $90 for a season pass or $25 for a week pass) has an RFID (radio frequency identification chip) built into it. What does this mean? Well this year the local law enforcement has taken over the duties of parking pass enforcement. With this RFID embedded pass, law enforcement is able to quickly scan your vehicle to see if you have a pass or not. This info can tell them an assortment of things such as who you are and what time you entered and left the dunes. They ‘claim’ this will only be done as you’re entering the popular Glamis camping areas.  Some questions that arise with the new type of pass are what’s to stop meter maids from driving camp to camp ‘scanning’ vehicles for the proper parking pass and how will they scan the weekly passes which are simple pieces of paper purchased from the parking pass machine?  Another little tid-bit that they are trying to get passed as law: Failure to properly display the pass will result in a ticket! This means if the yearly pass is not hung from the rear view mirror or in plain sight on your dash you will be donating $100 to the local law enforcement.

      Trash is still a huge problem at the dunes. There are ‘slobs galore’ that visit the dunes. They seem to think the dunes are their garbage dump. How hard is it to clean up after oneself?  Excessive trash WILL hurt the fight to keep the dunes open. I can’t stress it enough:

PACK IT IN PACK IT OUT, DON’T BE A SLOB!!

      Speaking of trash there is a new program being formed to try and help keep the dunes clean. It’s called “Slappy’s Adopt-a-Wash” program. No one really knows who ‘Slappy’ is, but he probably loves the beauty of the dunes more than anyone. He has started this program at GlamisDunes.com to have the responsible folks keep Glamis clean! The program’s mission statement is “Dedicated duners united together to protect and insure the pristine beauty of Glamis.” People are signing up for their favorite areas in which they want to keep clean. Areas include all the washes, Gecko areas and all the popular hills. There are free tee-shirts available for people that participate in these efforts as well as prizes for the cleanest areas! Get involved!

More info here: http://www.glamisdunes.com/index.php

      Closed areas reopening? Not so fast! Some camping areas were reopened east of the R/R tracks. This is good news! What about the dunes reopening? As I understand it, the current closures will be reopening ‘somewhat’. The small areas will be reopened as they were a few years ago, but the large central closure will become a limited use area (adaptive management area). This means that the BLM can only allow a total of 525 riders in this area per day –during daylight hours only.  In order to be in this group you will need to complete a brief questionnaire about the adaptive management area then fly a special colored flag on your ATV or sand rail. How will they effectively manage this new plan? Who knows! 

So with the new and old BS at the best riding area on earth:

Dune safe, keep it clean, and expect heavy law enforcement!