By Dave Helgeson
Sand dunes exist throughout the western states and offer great camping opportunities for boondocking. While most of us associate sand dunes with the ocean, there are extensive inland sand dunes located throughout the west.
Many of these inland dunes are administered by the boondocking-friendly Bureau of Land Management. Others may be controlled by state Department of Natural Resource offices or a similar government agency. The majority of these dunes permit free camping and the use of off road vehicles. Not only can you to boondock, catch some rays and run your toes through the sand, but you can take your motorized toys out and provide them a little exercise too. With the off road crowd being weekend warriors, you will typically have the dunes all to yourself during the week.
By clicking on https://duneguide.com/ you will find a listing of sand dunes in all 11 western states with the exception of Montana. [Click on the Sand Dunes tab at the upper left of the page.] There are also a few Midwest states listed too. A couple of the sand dunes listed are located on the coast but they are the exception rather than the rule. While the website is designed to serve the off road community, boondockers will find it a useful reference tool for finding campsites. Listings on the site include the location of the dunes, driving directions, if dispersed camping is allowed, fees (seldom any), allowable length of stay, facilities (if any) and much more.
The URL for duneguide.com took me to an ATV sales site. My Chrome browser said it might be “unsafe” but I’m wondering if it was just hijacked by someone wanting to advertise.
Sorry, Edward. That must have been one of those random AdSense ads that Google automatically inserts based on location, subject matter, etc. We didn’t put a link in the article to any “dune guides.” When you run into something questionable like that, would you please copy and send us the URL from the website so we can block it to keep it from showing up on our pages. That would be very helpful. If you see a triangle and an x in the upper right-hand corner of the ad, that’s from AdSense and we didn’t place the ad in there. Since there are probably 50,000 (wild guess) AdSense ads floating around, we can’t keep tabs on what’s popping up on folks’ computers in other parts of the country, for example. Thanks for your assistance, and we apologize for the inconvenience. —Diane at RVtravel.com
While I like the idea of boon docking overall I never see anything mentioned regarding being extricated should you become stuck in an non-paved environment. Most RV insurance policies that I have seen (and I have not seen them all) specifically mention being towed from a paved surface only.
Is there a policy that covers towing out of non-paved areas?