Oregon -- Dune Buggy -- Here's A Spectacular Playground - If Sand Doesn't Drive You Nuts

FLORENCE, Ore. - My visit to the Oregon Dunes coincided with this year's first big fall storm. I had hoped, as Northwesterners learn to hope, for an encounter with sun and warmth and instead got torrential rain and 100-mph winds. Afterward, I had to scrape sand out of my ears.

Sand got into everything. Of course, you have to expect a little sand to creep onto your body when you visit the dunes. Sand is what you come here for. Along this stretch of coast, sand instead of surf is the main attraction.

The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is 32,000 acres of rolling dunes spread along 50 miles of coastline from Florence to Coos Bay. It is said to be the largest expanse of coastal dunes in the world.

For first-timers, the dunes can be a little disorienting. They don't look like they belong here. There you are, driving along Highway 101 (from north or south) enjoying the dramatic ocean vistas when suddenly the dunes come into view like a scene from "Lawrence of Arabia." It's as if God took a massive stretch of the Sahara Desert and plopped it onto an Oregon beach.

Geologically speaking, though, this sandy landscape belongs here as much as do the rocky bluffs that we normally associate with the Northwest coast. The beginnings of the dunes here began appearing millions of years ago, but most of the creation took place in the past 12,000 years.

In a nutshell, the story goes like this: glaciers reduced mountains to sand. Rivers (in this case, the Coos, Siuslaw and Umpqua) carried the sand into the ocean. The ocean washed it back on to the shore.

The Oregon Dunes are only a small part of a massive dune sheet that stretches from northern Oregon to Southern California. Most of the sand along this stretch is hidden beneath trees and grasslands. But here, for reasons geologic and mysterious, the dune sheet is exposed.

Ancient conifer forests lie beneath these dunes. Sometimes, hiking through the area, you'll stumble on the top of an exposed snag. European beach grass and tree seedlings up to 6 feet tall also sprout from the sand. The most common plants are willow and shorepine (also known as lodgepole pine) shrubs that grow in sprawling groves.

Between these groves? Sand, sand and more sand. Sand mounds up to 500 feet high and a mile long, strung together and spread out for miles and miles. You can think of it as a place to act out your desert fantasies or play sand games - sort of a giant public sandbox next to the ocean.

You can rent a dune buggy and kick up your own sandstorm. You can take a guided tour through the desert on a sweaty steed. You can camp in any of 13 campgrounds or hike on any of 14 hiking trails. If you're going to hike, bring lots of water, a map, and a compass. One sand dune can look like any other sand dune.

The most spectacular dunes are found nine miles south of Reedsport at the Umpqua Dunes. Go to the North Eel Campground and hike a quarter mile through an evergreen forest toward the ocean. At the end of the forest trail, you'll find sand dunes rising out of the ground like mountains.

If you just want to look and not touch, drive to the Oregon Dunes Overlook just off Highway 101, 10 miles south of Florence. You'll find wood platforms on four different levels connected by wood walkways. Here you can look out at a panorama of rolling sand and shrubs. If the urge strikes, trails lead down into the dunes.

I wanted to find a secluded stretch of beach to watch the sun sink into the ocean. From south of Florence, I took the South Jetty Road to four different spots along the dunes. The time I was there, I did not see a single person. The sun was just starting to set, and the winds were picking up. I did not know at the time that a weather advisory had been announced: A storm was coming.

By the time I got to the fourth stop along South Jetty Road, the winds were blowing sand horizontally along the surface of the landscape. I had never seen anything like it. It made the land look watery, with waves and ripples and eddies. In spots, it looked like fast-moving streams of morning mist.

Out in the ocean, the waves were as violent as I've ever seen them on the Pacific Coast. A boat in these waters would have been wrecked. You could hear and feel the fury of the crashing waves; they were like the sound of a giant bass guitar thumping your chest.

I began to worry when a wind gust knocked me down. At first I thought it would be funny to be blown horizontal while hanging on to a skinny tree - something you might see in a cheesy South Pacific movie.

But that first knock-down gust took all the humor from me, and I hiked back to the car as quickly as I could. On the way, the rain started. By the time I was in the driver's seat, I looked as if I had taken a swim. It wasn't until I made it to my motel room that I realized how much sand I had collected on my little adventure. Last tip: bring Q-tips.