I HATE SAND LAKE... It has gotten so busy in the past couple years, that it has gotten really dangerous to ride, especially with young ones. Now since we experienced the southern Oregon dunes... I will never hit sand lake again. Horsefal to Spinrail is an absolute blast. I haven't tried Winchester or Florence, does anyone have any feedback on these places and why?
Thanks.

 

You'll find a lot of room to ride out of the Goose Pasture OHV Staging Area near Florence, including beach access. If you're driving south on Hwy 101 go through Florence, cross the Siuslaw River, and turn right on South Jetty Road. There is a paved parking area at the Goose Pasture OHV Staging Area larger than the one at Spinreel (which fills up easily). Some with 4wd haulers drive through the paved parking area at Goose Pasture and park on the sand flats beyond.

If you'll be camping check this site:Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

 

Here in So. Calif., we have precious few woods trails. When I go to Oregon Dunes, I go for the trails, not the "dunes" per se. I can be in Glamis in a few minutes if I want to shoot big bowls...no need to drive for 14 hours.

So, I am biased! Spinreel is my favorite by far. I like Florence as well and it is much like Spinreel, but with some bigger hills.

Don't really like Winchester that well. It is more open and has fewer trails.

 

Just rode at Winchester Dunes. Was a blast, we thought it was better than horsefal. No beach access though. Nice views, tall dunes.

 

For some reason events have conspired to put us riding at the Oregon Dunes a few times lately. We've taken advantage of the opportunities by hauling the Rancher along when we'd be near enough to go in and ride. THESE PHOTOS were taken last weekend when we unloaded at Horsfall Beach, including one showing how I managed to get the Rancher stuck. Incredibly, in the next hour we're headed out to locate some friends who are sand camping somewhere along Hauser Road in the same general area.

 

We love the Oregon dunes. So far this year we've been to Florence, Winchester and Coos Bay in April, Florence again in August, Winchester last month and then we'll be going to Horsfall Beach over Thanksgiving!
Alrady made plans and reservations for Winchester next April!!!!

 

So you've done them all, which do you prefer? We've only done Winchester and want to try something new. Also where are the best full hookup campgrounds???

 

See the information about OHV camping at the Oregon Dunes provided by the U.S. Forest Service Here

But I don't think any of these public OHV campgrounds with the best access to the Dunes offer full RV hookups.

Oregon Dunes KOA has full hookups for RV camping and direct ATV access to the Horsfall / Spinreel OHV area, via Hauser Beach Access Rd.

 

Honeyman State Park offers full hookups but only has direct dune access from October 1st - April 30th.
I do have to say that it is the best park to camp at.
Half Moon Bay campground at the Winchester dunes will eventually have full hook ups. Just dry camping for now but it is a nice, new park.
Every dune area is different. Winchester has the largest dunes, Florence has some wide open dunes fields and easy beach access. Coos Bay/Spinreel is huge, 12 miles from end to end with many different varieties of riding from open dunes to lots of trails. It also has beach acess but you have to ride a 3 mile long whoops road to get there.
All 3 areas are very different and loads of fun. You can't go wrong at any of them.

 

If you can get by without hookups for a couple of days you can get a cheap permit for sand camping right on the Oregon Dunes at Hauser Access. Then just move back to a place with full hookups when you've had enough of that.

We met up with some friends doing this two weeks ago, Oct. 27-28, who had their toy haulers at a site on the sand about half-a-mile off the road. On their advice, I was able to drive my 2wd pickup to their camp, hauling our ATV, just by airing my tires down to 15 psi. It worked great.

See the photos and a few short video clips here:http://codysguide.com/atv2007/Hauser/index.htm