Hello Dunes, nice to meet you!

We made a really fun journey to San Diego last month for one of Daughter's gymnastics meets.  Along the way, we stopped at the Imperial Sand Dunes, between Yuma and EL Centro, along Interstate 8.  It was just a little one-hour rest break, but I think it was one of the highlights of our weekend!

The Tatoonie scenes of the Star Wars movies were shot in the Imperial Dunes,  which upped the coolness factor for the kids.  This place is so cool, anyway!

Here's some footage I put together, using our point-and-shoot images and video, and also the pinhole images I made there.

If you get the opportunity to stop there sometime, I heartily recommend it! 

This is largely an ATV recreational area, and a week-long permit is required for camping and driving on the dunes.  You can't buy the permit on site- but it must be purchased either in Yuma or El Centro.  We talked to the very nice campground host, who told us that we could briefly visit without the pass, meaning we could walk on to the dunes from the parking area, so long as we did not drive on the sand.  We did this, and had a great awe-inspiring time.

You can also drive down Grays Wells Road to an exhibit of an authentic portion of a wood plank road, which was used from 1914-1927, for the old Model Ts to cross.