November 11, 2023

It’s incredible how many natural points of interest are within a tank of gas of Orange County. I had been to Kelso Dunes during a summer roadtrip in 2020 and shown Tina photos, but it took two years before I would see them again and Tina would see them in person.

After about a three hour drive we made it to the trailhead, having no problems after the pavement ended even with a small two wheel drive sedan.

From the trailhead the dunes are impressive. With no natural points of scale to determine their size your brain isn’t quite sure how massive these dunes are. Aiding this trickery is the sand itself. Reaching the base of a dune the sand gradually increases in slope, yielding a single step of progress for three steps of effort. Even though the tallest dune is 600ft from the valley floor an estimate of 2000ft seems more appropriate.

From the top of the tallest dune the layers of sand stretch to the edges of the valley, once again feeling grandiose in scale, but without any trees, rivers, or roads its impossible to make any meaningful sense of the immensity.

The reward of the dune’s summit is not just a great view. What comes up must go down. A few families from a Polish school in LA that had the foresight to bring along sleds and they were kind enough to allow Tina and myself to borrow one.

We had enough fun I didn’t even bother to photograph it. After returning the sled we went down on foot. Although not quite the rush of the sled, it was still a joy to leap forward and be caught by the soft sand. Tina took a different approach and went for more of a downward run.

After reaching the trailhead we decided to head towards Joshua Tree and along the way passed through Amboy. This classic stop on Route 66 has a 60’s dilapidated charm to it which is well worth the stop.

Thinking we would spend the night in 29 Palms and visit Joshua Tree the next day, we would set our GPS to a Popeyes just outside of the city. After arriving and getting turned around at a military base (thanks for the heads up google maps) we would instead eat possibly the most disappointing meal of our lives at a Del Taco in 29 Palms. After checking into and then immediately back out of a motel that was filthy we decided to just call it a night and head back to OC. Thankfully there was another Popeyes (this time accessible to civilians) on our way home to free our tastebuds from the Del Taco aftertaste.