This weekend my husband, daughter, and I finally made it down to Juniper Dunes in Eastern WA. Since there isn’t a lot of info on this place, I figured I would post a little bit about our trip.
Juniper is only about 7-8 miles outside of the Tri-cities, and was fairly easy to find. Peterson Rd. (private road) is the only entrance right now. The private part of the road in, is mostly gravel. Once you get to the first staging area, the road turns into sand, but it is hard packed. We took our truck and trailer in with no problems.
There are lots of great spots to pull off and set up camp, but if you are afraid of bugs, Juniper is not the place for you! The first spot we picked to camp looked terrific, there was even a shade tree. However, after we got out of the truck, our daughter noticed what looked like a very large grasshopper under this tree. After taking a second look, I noticed that it wasn’t a grasshopper at all. It was a HUGE cricket and about 50 of his closest friends! These things were about 3 inches long and weird looking. But the freaky part was they all started coming toward us. It was like a scene from a bad sci-fi movie. We all jumped back in the truck and moved to a different site. The mutant crickets were all over, so there was no real escape, but they liked to stay in the shade, so we stayed away from the trees.
Anyway, there are some decent size dunes out there towards the backside of the riding area, bigger than the dunes at Moses Lake, the sand is a lot nicer to. There are some razorbacks and it’s windy there so the dunes can change a lot. We ended up helping out a dirtbiker who found out about them the hard way after he endo’d down the dune and busted his collarbone.
There are miles and miles of trails to ride, most of the ones we found were pretty easy, wide, sandy trails. Just don’t stop on the trails or the crickets will come after you, and yes, they do bite. Most of the riding there is desert trail type riding. If you like to explore, this is a great place to do it.
There is no water at Juniper, so make sure you bring a lot, you will need it. It was very hot (95-110 degrees). The only respite from the heat was when we rode to the edge of the dunes where it runs into farmland. We found an irrigation sprinkler that was going and got totally drenched and then rode some more. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
To sum it up, Juniper is a great place to ride. Lots of trails, decent size dunes, nice sand, and not many other riders. It would be even nicer when it cools down a bit in the fall or early spring.

 

Excellent review. I think we'll wait till September for cooler temps. and hopefully fewer alien sci-fi bugs. Would you recommend bringing the paddle tires?

 

The sand is pretty soft so we used paddles the whole time. A couple of the bigger dunes may be a little challenging to get up without them, but if you have a decent set of holeshots or something comparable it shouldn't be a real big problem. Some of the trails can get a little rocky but it's mostly sand. If you go out exploring, the place is pretty big and it can get a little disorientating. There are powerlines running through there and they go right by the main road, so you can use them as a referrence point.
As for the bugs, after a while they were more of a joke and we just tried to run over as many of the little beasts as possible. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

How long of a drive overall did it take you from Federal Way?

 

It's about a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive from Federal Way to Juniper if you leave early and miss the I-5 and Hwy 18 traffic mess.

 

Oh yeah, that I-5 traffic!! That can add anywhere from 45-over and hour on your time. Gotta love the traffic.