We headed out for the last part of Christmas week and the New Years weekend to try our luck on the sand dunes of Glamis. We had never done any extensive sand dune trips in the jeep and were unsure of how we’d fare.

I purchased an new set of BF Goodrich All Terrain K/O tires, that were recommended as good sand tires that function as a good daily driver road tires at the same time. I lowered the air pressure down to 8 lbs all the way around and headed off to the nearest dune to try them out.

As long as we kept our momentum up we had no problems all weekend. We covered most of the Imperial Sand Dunes (official name for Glamis area) with no problems. We even went into the bigger bowls behind Oldsmobile Hills, and while we couldn’t get vertical on the big bowls we were able to travel through the area by picking our paths carefully. We even climbed Oldsmobile hill no problem on both the steep and non-steep areas.

If you look off into the distance you can see the amount of people. Between when this shot was done on Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning, the number of people out there was doubled. Unfortunately our camera died in the sand. Next time we’ll place the camera in a ziplock bag when not in use so that the sand doesn’t break it.  So you don’t get to see the pictures of the huge crowds at the base of Oldsmobile on Saturday and Sunday or the amazing cars running on the sand drags.

I am extremely happy with our jeep adventures so far. For Christmas Wendy got a new tent. This is a 3 season tent from REI that is supposed to sleep 6. It fits our queen size air mattress with room for table and chairs. When your out in the desert it is really refreshing to get out of the wind and blowing sand. Luckily this weekend was really calm, but we’ve been out when it’s blowing 40 mph and there’s dust everywhere. We’re now able to get everything we need for a week in the wilderness (fuel, food, sleeping gear, cooking stuff etc) loaded into the jeep and are able to do it comfortably. The freedom to load up, get food, fuel up and leave society for a week is really nice

Our friend who lives with us and owns the motorcycle, rented a Quad for the weekend. The quad was able to go just about anywhere in Glamis.

On Saturday morning, Wendy and I headed over to Black Mountain. From the train tracks at glamis you can see a hill to the east that has some TV and Radio antennas on it. This is Black Mountain. We aired up our tires and headed off to the east. We decided to make the run from the south to the north, which according to one book was the harder route due to a short section of uphills. When reading descriptions in books it’s very hard to guage difficulty. We headed east on the 78 to Ogliby Rd, then south. Look for the enterance to Indian Pass Rd and head east again. The first road you find on the left, it’s an access road for the power lines, take it back to the base of Black Mountain.

This access road is pretty easy to navigate, even for a standard SUV. (Note: Our camera gave up at this point, sorry) The trail then branches east over to Black Mountain. It was easy going until we got to the base of Black Mountain. The first 1/4 mile stretch going up the hill is real aggressive. We could get about 1/2 way up but had to stop since we were alone and I didn’t want to break an axle or some other necessary part without a ride back to camp. We’re planning another trip in spring to Glamis and will make this trail a dedicated side trip then.

 How To Reach Glamis

From San Diego you go east on the I-8 until you reach El Centro. Take 86 (Imperial Ave) exit towards Brawley. Once you reach Brawley take the 78 East to Glamis Beach Store. You will need to purchase a $25 permit to go into the Imperial Dunes area. You will also need a buggy whip (the orange flag you see on the jeep pictures above) and it needs to have a light if you run at night.

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