Hello, I am curious as to where these dunes are, I know they are in califonia, but if anyone has a link to a page about them please let me know.

My son said he wants to go to the beach, so I thought maybe a trip to pismo dunes would be fun. I heard a while back they might close it up, is it still open?

any info is appreciated

Thanks
Bat

 

Bat here is the link http://www.oceanodunes.org/links.asp

 

Do a search for "Oceano Dunes" and you will find the Friends of Oceano Dunes.org as well as the state park site. There is a legal battle ensuing, the Sierra Club and The Environmental Defense fund are trying to close it down, but have not yet succeeded. It will be a very sad day if they succeed. The local economy has a big stake in this. This is not a beach bunny, get a tan, play volleyball kind of beach. It is nice,,, nice and cold, even in summer. The clams are gone, the beach bunnies have never been there. If they close it up to OHVs there will be no reason to go, for about anyone.
.....You have to drive down the beach for a mile south of Oceano before you can unload your quads. Oceano is a couple of miles south of Pismo. There are two "ramps" onto the beach. (San Louis Obispo is about 15 miles south on the freeway). There is a small creek you have to cross before unloading. In the winter it becomes quite large and hard to cross. I pulled my three quads with my 2wd Pathfinder no problem, but that was July. Camping, RV style is the preferred method. Tents are pretty miserable. There is a lot of blowing sand, and the regular crowd brings extra tarps and 2' wide sheets of plywood to skirt their RV's from the unrelenting cold ocean breezes carrying ever-invasive sand. The RV's try to form a wind break and reminded me of wagons circling to protect themselves from the indians.
......The riding area is good, but has gotten pretty small, down to a couple of thousand acres from the once 14,000 acre sand dune area. The weekends are a little scary. During the week it is quite nice, and the crowd is a lot more friendly. 5,000 riders on 2,000 acres can be a bit intense. Paddles are preferred but not neccessary unless you want to win drag races. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

Thanks for the info guys, it is probably not somewhere I will visit, but if it stays open might someday. I prefer the big dunes. I am planning a trip to st anthony sometime this summer.

Thanks again
Bat

 

Pismo is great in the summer, if you break a sweat just take a short break and you're cool again. I don't like it in the winter though, once you step off your quad it becomes quite cold. It is still fun in the winter, but you just have to dress for cooler riding etc. If/when you go, try to find out which 'ramp' is better, sometimes one of them will be torn up and only passable by 4x4s. Also the water crossing the two times I've seen it was I'd guess 6"-8" deep, I had no trouble in my 2wd F150 with my trailer on. The trouble I do seem to have each time when I want to leave is getting moving again without 4wd being kind of a pain. It REALLY bites to watch someone in a 4x4 just shift into 4wd then watch the truck easily drive off, like it was on pavement.

 

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