bigslim,Sand Lakes is a great place to go don't let some loser that got drunk & crashed his quad stop you.Like I mentioned in my post the weekend crowd is definately different than the mid week crowd.

We(my wife & son) got there on a Wednesday and thursday as well was great.On Friday the crowd changed to a younger,louder,faster group.We were there untill Saturday & it is definately a different place, especially at night the dunes,the East & West parking lots really come alive with all types.

Really depends on what you like,if you have a few young ones you may find camping/riding during mid week better.I imagine most of the other Oregon dunes(Florence,Coos Bay,etc..)would be similar based on the day of the week?

Derrick[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

sandlakes? or sandlake? LOL! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Neither,Sand Lake LOL[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

No, the accident was on Saturday around 4:00. When I say family I mean I can take the little ones there on a busy weekend without too much fear of them getting hurt. If you've ever been to Glamis, Buttercup or worst of all Moses Lake on any weekend you'll know what I mean. Sand Lake was packed that weekend, relatively speaking, and we never had any "close calls" when we were riding. If you just want to ride dunes Sand Lake is probably not the place for you. I get bored very fast there, no bowls, but it's fairly easy for the kids, the camping is great and you can ride right to the sand from the campground.

So Bigslim, tell me about the bigger dunes. Florence sounds good but I don't want to camp in a parking lot or have to trailer out of the campground everytime I want to ride. What do Coos Bay and Winchester offer for camping?

 

florence offers driftwood 2 and frontier and honeymen from oct 1 to like apr something that you can ride right out of camp and it is big enough that you can go on a private ride or a group or hang out at comp or jetty hills and see and meet a lot of people, i really like florence for the kids, real friendly for them some flat areas for them to learn how to ride then there are a bunch of trails, and plenty of those stupid holes if you like to climb up hills, plus the beach is real easy to get to so you can take a long ride there.

 

I think the only reason I like sand lake is because coming from Tacoma, its closer. SInce i have the whole family into this thing now, not everyone is apt to making the freeway drive down to Coos or WInchester. I usually only hang around the tree shots and thats it. At night in the bowl as well. I hate the beach,,,way too many idiots on the beach. I told my daughter that next time we go there, on the day we leave we would go around and pick up cans im sure she could make money off all the cans and bottles.

 

Sandman, what about camping during the summer months? Isn't there camping at Winchester or Coos Bay with direct sand access from the campground? Gotta have the camping feel for the rest of the family to do the dunes.

 

Sand Lake is tight! great family environment!!

 

but no showers!! =(

 

Just did the Sand Lake thing for the first time about 2 weeks ago. Pretty mundane. Very wide open. Not much for a challenge. For you Washington folks, it would be well worth your time to come on down a little more south and do the Horsfall/Spinreel thing. It goes on for miles and miles in all directions. Woops, bowls, huge dunes, trails through the trees, it's got it all. Wasn't real impressed with Sand Lake, but it's better than not going at all.

Just my .02