(written on December 2nd and 4th)
It was nice to be the only one at the dunes early this morning, the crowds of yesterday chased off by the earliness of the hour.
I had thought that maybe I’d hike across the dunes all the way to 90-mile beach–that’s actually the main reason I came all the way back, was everything I could find online said that you access the beach from the dunes area.
I didn’t realize it was a couple miles away. 😅
So I hung out on the dunes (almost 500 feet tall at the tallest), following along as BYU got absolutely smoked (in football) by Texas Tech.
Rough game. 🤕
Texted back and forth with my brother about the game as we beheld the unfolding carnage.
[sigh]
I figured there was a good chance BYU would lose. My only real request was that they at least give a good showing.
😅
No joy there.
As others arrived at the dunes and hiked up as far as I had, I made my way back to the van, and pointed her nose south, again searching for a way to get to 90-mile beach, as 4WD was necessary at the dunes.
I still wanted to have the opportunity to experience the famous driving of 90-mile beach at low tide, and I did find a way to the beach!
Except… it wasn’t low tide. 🙃
I seem to just about always manage to get to my tide-specific adventures at the wrong tidal time. Guess that shows the nature of my travel personality. No real plans, just see where you end up and when. Usually, that’s given me great adventures.
But it also means missing a few things.
Still… I found a way to the beach about halfway down that portion of the coast (the beach isn’t really 90 miles long… half that, actually, but that’s still a long beach), following a dirt road through the forest.
After hemming and hawing for a bit, nervous, texting with Richard about it (whether or not to do the beach drive at high tide (my brother encouraging in the affirmative 😆), I decided to give driving the beach a shot–risking getting stuck in the sand with waves rolling in and engulfing the van. 🙃
And I almost did–get stuck, that is. 😆
Funny.
I probably made it maybe a half a mile or mile down the beach before I nearly got myself stuck driving through sand that was far too dry (I was nervous to stay on the wet sand, which is exactly what I think you need to do. 😅
But I felt a bit over my head because of inexperience, and so I very carefully made a u-turn at a speed higher than I wanted but that I deemed necessary to maintain enough momentum to not get stuck. 🙃
Adventures. 😅
Wish I had someone to share them with.
After leaving I drove for a while, got some gas, and made my way to what I’m going to call Garbage Falls. 😅
Someone had come to the parking area, which clearly wasn’t well kept anyway and dumped trash everywhere.
It looked like someone had done some spring cleaning, didn’t want to take the time to try and sell anything because it wasn’t worth the effort and didn’t want to pay a dump fee, so they just… dumped it there. 😕
After my original camping spot turned out to be a no go, this was my hoped-for backup spot, but with the trash everywhere, the unkempt state of the place anyway, it was the kind of place to give you the creeps, especially in the dark, which was when I arrived there–well after dark.
So naturally, I decided to stay the night there anyway. 🙃
Hope nobody kills me in the night. 😅
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 