Utah/Idaho Dune Ride 2009 Review- very long, lots of pics

[Ben]

Here it is by popular demand, the trip review for 2009. This years theme-rain. Us Ohioans left at about 6:15am on wednesday and headed out, the MN guys left around noon for our meet up is Des Moines IA. Went well, we got the within 15 minutes of each other. Took us about 10 hours to get there
This is my personal favorite, the Ohio Turnpike RoadWarrior. Have to watch your mirrors for this guy so you can get out of the way, im sure he flies down the road in that rig at a cool 35mph

Before we met in Des Moines we stopped at Iowa 80, the worlds largest truckstop. Was a cool place. Had a giant gift shop, a full food court, a huge showroom for truck parts that had 3 rigs inside on display, a library, a dentist, and other shit

Ran across lots of wind farms in the middle of the country. Iowa was surprisingly hilly, Nebraska was dead flat, and Wyoming looked pretty much like MT.

Stopped at Cracker barrel in Nebraska i think? maybe Iowa? was good food, never had it for dinner before

We drove all through the night with no problems until we hit Salt Lake City, right in the middle of the city we hit a hellacious storm that was insane, weather was shit from there all the way to Little Sahara. It was pouring right before we pulled into LS, everything was soaked. We were less then thrilled when we got out at the campground, we all had WTF written all over our faces. But it worked out surprisingly well. I liked our setup at UT better then the one at ID. Other big difference is you really feel like your out in the country in UT, there is NOTHING around, and pretty scenic looking out of your tent. At ID your in a cramped campground surrounded by farm fields with all the local hicks like the farmer from Napolean Dynamite around. UT had a very good atmosphere to it, i liked it.

[Ben]

We went out to Sand Mountain on thursday night after we got set up, is a healthy hillclimb. I was quite happy when banshee climbed it all the way in 4th. This pic is from friday when we went out all toegther, this is danny jumping a hill behind Sand Mountain

Pete and Chris on same hill. Chris went way further 

Medium sized dunes behind Sand Mountain. Was some good riding in there, very much like rowing through the big hills in ID, just a lot less of them. There were some pretty good bowls too. Nice part is there is no lava rock at LS, but there is a lot more grass. Pete missed out on that ride, his headpipe fell off, he met back up with us later


Dusty smoking Pete up backside of Sand Mountain. I think after this is when he decided to go rock climbing or cliff diving at the top, something happened up there

Back at camp. The hill in the backround, we climbed that bitch saturday morning on foot. Was a lot steeper then i anticipated, we were huffing pretty good up it. Was worth it, amazing view at top. Pics from that are later

I was out on a small hill of sand outside the campground when i took this. Inside all those trees is Oasis Campground. You can see all the trails you have to take to get to dunes. Im at the entrance to the sand

This is from on top of Sand Mountain looking towards the campgrounds. Off in the distance is Oasis where we stayed
Chris climbing chute on side of sand mountain

This storm came rolling through while we were up there, decided to wait and see if it was going to hit our camp or not. Was cool to watch it progress, looks like a hole was cut in the bottom of it and its just dumping its guts out. You can see for so many miles in the distance out there, you see the storms coming and can judge how fast they are coming and how much time you have. Definitely a different perspective then at home. You can see the storms in its entirety as they are rolling up and just completely swallows up the mountains and all as it goes

[Ben]

On top of Sand mountain. Was weird, you couldnt climb up and over it, at the top ridge the whole way across, was all rock. It was sharp as hell too. It took us awhile just to figure out how to get to the other side of Sand Mountain and all the other dunes

Another storm. It rained whole trip about every 6 hours. Was pretty warm when sun was out and all the rain was evaporating, but when a storm rolled through, it got COLD. Dropped into low 50s. Constantly putting on sweatshirt, taking off sweatshirt

Another storm

More weather

The tow vehicles. Dmax didnt disappoint, and i was quite jealous of the room in the long bed. Also just like everytime, once we start climbing in elevation once we get out west, and the wind starts blowing in flatter areas, my gas engine feels like it turned into a V-6. But the diesels chug right through, they arent affected nearly as much by it. But overall i would rate the SS an A+ for towing, it does it very well.

[Ben]

These pics are from on top of that hill by our campsite that i mentioned we climbed on foot before. Im looking over the campground, our camp is to the left, you can just make out the trucks sitting next to each other. In the distance, thats the hill of sand that i was sitting on before waiting for everyone

Sand Mountain/larger dunes

We were out in the area to the right of Sand Mountain, was some cool areas and chutes to climb. Petes at the top there, luckily he looked over the top onto the backside and saw the storm that snuck up on us. We couldnt see it since it was coming from behind the mountain and we were at the base of it. It was moving fast, we hauled ass back to camp as fast as we could through the small dunes, did really well, made it back just in time. Was a lot of fun

Storm coming to camp, was just rain, but was pretty steady. You should be able to see all the dunes and mounatins in the distance here, but the rain was a white out

Sitting under canopy watching it rain. We did this more then ride

Some quad porn, need to sell this to Yamaha

[Ben]

More rain, at least we got a double rainbow out of it

I was out on a nature walk waiting for a storm to come pass through, saw this plant. Odd looking, the little pouches were tender. Didnt see one other one out there, this was only one around

Here we are leaving on Sunday morning. Sad to see camp packed up, was a good camp for what we thought initially was going to be a crap hole. Looking back now, i wish we would have stayed later. I think the weather was better in UT then ID, and there was more parts of the dunes we could have explored. But we were out of food, and i think we all had fantasies in our heads that it doesnt rain in ID. Also Dan was there waiting for us
I've changed my mind after looking back on it while writing this, i would go back to LS. Would really want some sort of travel trailer/toy hauler though. There were a lot around us in Oasis, most insulting thing was when it would start raining and we would be freezing under canopy, you would hear all the generators fire up in the travel trailers and they would sit on their couches or whatever watching a movie while waiting for the rain to stop.

This is the Little Sahara Visitor Center. Was a different setup there. You passed by here first and bought your passes. Was $8 a day per tow vehicle, very reasonable. Then you kept going along and a few miles down you would get to the dunes and chose which campground to use. There were 3, and its all included in your pass fee. There is no rangers or anything at the campgrounds, everything is unmanned. All there is out there is the visitor center which isnt always open, and its miles away

[CBerg]

Very good, Odly enough..... I in some weird way wish I was back in UT.   I think If I get a toyhauler I'll be back for sure.

[Ben]

We left UT on sunday morning around 10am i believe, stopped for breakfast along the way, got to Saint Anthony around 5pm i think. Was very easy drive and surprisingly the packing up camp, driving, and setting camp back up wasnt bad. Everyone did what they had to do and no whining, all went smoothly. Our campsites were huge compared to what we were used to, we didnt even use all the room. While the spaciousness was nice, the trees and all at LS made a better campsite. Here it felt like we were just in the middle of the parking lot. But the pay showers were clean and nice compared to Sand Hills. Campground itself wasnt bad at all. Was nice being close to big dunes too. We rolled through Sand Hills one evening, i admit i felt a little down and missed it, we had a lot of good trips there and good memories. But hands down Desert Oasis is a better run campground. When we got to ID the first night the camp store was already closed, didnt matter, no gate or anything, just rolled right in and found our spots and setup, went and checked in the next morning. Much more laid back. No drama FINALLY

Here's a storm to welcome us to ID. It poured right before we got there too, i didnt even bother going riding sunday night

This is us all out in the big dunes on Monday i believe

Another storm and our buddy K2's trailer. He sounded EXACTLY like Norm McDonald.

Me and Chris went out riding inbetween storms on monday, i couldnt sit around anymore. Sand was all beat and wet though

Egin Lakes

Woke up tuesday to this guy crop dusting, was cool to watch. What a bad ass job to have. He buzzed the campground and one of the guys from BC's Washington friends says he got gassed by him. Poor Jerry

[Ben]

Danny climbing Devils. I dont have too many riding shots since they pretty much all end up looking like ones from past years

Heather wussed out and came up the backside

Dan rolling up from the left

On tuesday, maybe it was wednesday, we decided to go to the dunes across the street from Sand Hills, finally we were able to ride over there without any crashes or breakdowns making us turn around. Was my favorite ride there this year. Heres a little lizard friend i saw in the lava rock over there

This is at the end, was some good riding back there and was smooth with minimal tracks

More weather for us

Sorry Chris, had to put it up for reference when we look back on this trip, the official incident of the trip. Half shaft got blown out, thank God they got it fixed in time for us to leave. If it didnt break we would have left a day early

This was thursday, i was sitting under canopy as usual and got so cold had to go sit in truck and watch it rain



 

[Ben]

This was thursday also. The Dmax was in the shop, and we were all miserable and ready to go home. We were tired of being rained on, tired of tents, tired of looking at each other under the canopy. So we decided to go out and see some lava tube caves that were supposed to be nearby. Since we only had one truck, me and chris rode in the bed of the SS. The directions we got, well sucked armadillo dick. We almost got lost and almost ran out of gas. Never did find the stupid caves. In this pic we are trying to figure out where we are. This added to our disgust quite nicely. Danny and Chris were only ones that rode that day, the rest of us were done. We got the Dmax back from the dealer and went to dinner, then went back and while getting rained on tried to take down as much of camp as we could. We all wanted to leave right away in the morning, not waste another hour there. OF COURSE friday morning we get up to leave, NOT A SINGLE HINT OF A CLOUD IN THE SKY. The last insult, we said F idaho and rolled out

Best gas station in the country, lets you get psyched for the big hill up into Island Park. Dmax rolled some nice coal going up it, and the SS hung with it pretty good for a gas engine. Own that hill

Besides Sniffers Row, funniest part of trip. Danny lost the cover of his PS3 out the window in Yellowstone and he had to run back for it,
 HAHAHAHHAHA

Yellowstone Lake

This is my favorite pic from the trip, when i took it i never thought it would have come out so well. This is in MT right before we got to our hotel. Dusty couldnt wait anymore. We stopped at the Texas Roadhouse in Billings for dinner again before this, i highly recommend the pulled pork.

[Ben]

Now for the trip inside references
1. Sniffers Row
2. nipples that cut open beer cups
3. creepy old guy talking about blow up dolls
4. he looks like a Jerry
5. did i leave the 4wd on?
6. it says a few miles down from Sand Hills
7. XM channel 81 BPM
8. you need soft hands
9. Kenny Powers
10. someone just threw something at your truck

I dont think we gave UT as much of a chance as we should have, for some reason i think we all thought things would be much better at ID and just kept looking forward to that. Would be perfect to go back there with a trailer to stay in. Also with a set of knobbies, would be cool to do some real exploring there. I would like to go back there, and can be better prepared for it now after seeing what its like.

[CBerg]

excellent!   The picture of the DirtyMax on the back of a wrecker is horrible, should be deleted!   I guess I'm glad it was another GM towtruck with a CAT in it.   Had it been a Cummins or PowerJoke I might have just thrown in the towel.

I can't believe you left out Shatner....

[Pete]

it's all about Shatner
'mitts' that fall apart when you Nolan Ryan them
the solar camp shower.
Bryce and Carrie smashing their quads into each other while Dan yells 'BRYCE STOP, STOP BRYCE'
pizza dip
the strangest drunken conversation I've ever heard
Ben's desire to strangle someone by the time we got to Utah
hail again
the weirdo drug addict fumigating the bathroom with drug fumes
Dusty's uber depression when Chris' truck broke

[Pete]

I will do more pics in the next few days bought I thought these 2 were cool at a glance.

1.  a butte or bluff along the highway in Utah
2.  the SS rollin stout through some June snow in Yellowstone

[DannyBoy]

That was great, nice job.  Funny how much I've forgot about already.  I think I'll frame my action shot from Yellowstone.  I don't like how you edited out my nut-kicking intent though.  I was running with a purpose!

Your weird egg sac plant is interesting.  Thats true how most of the riding pics end up looking the same from other trip.  We should all buy different gear every year.  

I don't know why but K2 talking about Walmart was funny as shit.  Someone mentioned a sale at Walmart and he said "do they have sales?  i thought it was just everyday low prices" and went on for a little while, hahaha.

Chris, has anything come of the Saturday night incident?

Hahaha, I love the trip references.  18 miles past Rexburg and the Sand Dunes is a great one..trying to think of others...
Dusty losing his shit Wednesday night
Pete asking Dusty if he was decent in the tent and Chris saying "....maybe"
do you guys want to go to petes house or not
why are we stopped and 80 black kids around chris truck
mace up the ass
jizz on SS from HMF
"danny! dont forget the *punt* CHEESE!"
only thing in ohio is factories

and lastly....
ARMPIT

[Heather]

omg Im dieing laughing!!! the trip review is WAY better then the trip was hahahaha!!! OMG This Rocks!!!