Juniper Dunes is a National Wilderness about 30 minutes north of Pasco, Washington. Sand is not that uncommon in this part of the country, but usually only dunes form near rivers. These dunes are left over from an ancient flood. There is one trail in that is about 2 miles long, but then it disappears into a dune and you are left to wonder around in the area. It’s quite a contrast to the grazing and wheat fields that surround the area. Here are some photos if you want to have a look.
The area is a trick to get to unless you know where it is and it can only be access via private land. This limits access, for example the north entrance that I used is only open from March - May. It looks like the Bureau of Land Management is negotating more regular access from the south entrance. There were some issue with traffic and people being generally annoying, so the landowner cut off access (linked from here). Until then this area is all the more special.
Remarkable. I couldn’t get a sense of scale from the beautiful photos — how high are the dunes? Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes are somewhat similar in areas, but they always seem to have a bunch more footprints…
Comment by sparksjackson — March 21, 2007 @ 2:11 am
The largest ones are probibly about 30-40 ft high on the leeward side. From the trails, the people who hiked on this side of the Wilderness seemed to be pretty responsiable. The number of hikers is also low due to the limited accessability, maybe 4-8/day from the trail book. The day before I went there was a group of 14 camping for the night, most other parties were 2-3.
Comment by Tyler — March 21, 2007 @ 2:30 am