Algodones Dunes

El Centro BLM

Click for map.

When I first looked southwest from a high point in the Cargo Muchacho Mountains, it seemed that Mexico was somehow demarcated in a different color by nature. Of course the color line had to actually be something else and the border doesn't quite run right there. Turns out the something else is sand dunes. These aren't just any sand dunes either. The Algodones Dunes, also known as the Imperial Dunes, are famous on stage and screen. Well, maybe just screen. These dunes "played" Tatooine in Star Wars. And I thought I might see them on a weekday, but it is already Friday (morning) and they are an absolute mad house.

A quad and a bike take off across the sand over the well established tracks.

The road in has frequent pit toilets and is lined with campers and toy haulers all presumably with permits.

The dunes have a low area that is a veritable highway of tracks to get out into it all and high areas where people play. The high areas can be fairly track free, but they have their developing roadways too. The noise of engines doesn't stop although it is possible to look out and see none of them simply because dunes do have a lot of texture. They are a little more solid than usual to walk on from rain yesterday, but that is drying quickly. A quick look around, but no more. I have another thing to do today.

The dunes seem to rise ever higher. The overall structures are stable enough to map.

The veritable highway below. These routes probably change little overall too.

Plants grow here, even with all the vehicle play. The light spots that look like they may be flowers are just leaves.

Dark and light shows where sand is still wet and where it has dried already along a pristine ridge line.

The basin seems to be where everyone is heading.

I wonder what contributes to the inconsistencies in the sand color.

Looking back to the Cargo Muchacho Mountains.

©2019 Valerie Norton
Written 3 March 2019