I’ve been to some wild places where the crowds were big and crazy on Halloween weekend. In fact, my wife Beth and I were out in Las Vegas last year for Halloween. Talk about a freak show, there was everything from Naughty Cops to Papa Smurf. We even ran into Paris Hilton who was dressed up as some type of Poison Ivy Goddess. Although we didn’t run into Paris Hilton at the sand dunes, we might as well have. There was so much going on that it was difficult to keep track. The crowds in Vegas were big, but they don’t compare to what we experienced at Glamis.

Cheri, Rick, and the Kids.

My friend Bret, Beth, and I took off Friday after work. Everything had been worked on and loaded before the trip, so when the 5 o’clock whistle went off, we were long gone. We didn’t run into too much traffic on the way out, but we did get stuck behind a bus for 5 miles going 20 mph on a double yellow two-lane road. Bret called it the Partridge Family bus, which made me laugh so hard that my frustrations went away. After driving for two hours and passing a few dozen toyhaulers, we finally entered the town of Brawley, which is on the outskirts of the Imperial Sand Dunes. The gas stations in Brawley had run out of unleaded gas. Luckily we had fueled up outside of Brawley and only had to stop for race fuel. The very last gas station before you leave Brawley and head towards Glamis on Hwy 78 has a VP Race Fuel pump—I think that’s very cool.

Even the Big Boys need help now and then.

As we approached Glamis, I could tell this was going to be a very big weekend. Gecko Road seemed completely full by Friday night. Good luck trying to find a space for your Diesel Truck and 40ft toyhauler (my dream rig and trailer). This was one of the largest crowds assembled at Glamis I’d ever seen. Talking with people that frequent the Imperial Sand Dunes, they agreed this was by far the largest crowd they had seen in a very long time for Halloween weekend. There were well over 100,000 visitors that weekend.

Check out Joe Fab from Sand Limo in his Super Hornet

Lucky for us we had a space being saved. Our friend Bob was the first one there, so he blocked off a spot, and then called everyone with the GPS coordinates—talk about being efficient. I later was glad Bob had done this, if it weren’t for those coordinates many of us would have been driving around in circles. It was a zoo trying to get to our camp. People had made big wagon circles, closed off roads, and put the road system into disarray. I could see our camp, but we couldn’t get to it. It was like going through a life size maze. We finally figured out our way after hitting some dead-ends, and almost getting stuck in the sand—thank goodness for 4WD.

Yes folks, those are people—not ants.

Once we got ourselves situated, we fired up the quads, bikes, and buggies. We took a cruise out to Olds, and got a feel for what was going on. Not too much on Friday night, so we were able to get some riding in. Later that night, we played sand ushers—we had to go out and meet people from our group on the main road to help guide them into our camp. Talk about feeling pressure, the last thing you want is to take a truck towing a 30ft trailer down a dead-end road, and then ask them to back up 100 ft or so. All we had to work off of were Bob’s GPS coordinates and some landmarks like a big blowup Frankenstein, pumpkin, and flashing lights.

Bob and Bret tearing it up at the top of Olds

On Saturday morning, we all got up and got some good old desert camp breakfast. I don’t know what it is, but the simplest food just taste better when you’re out camping. Once everyone in our group got their stuff together, we suited-up, fired-up the toys, and headed out. The group of sandcars, quads, and motorcycles made its way to Oldsmobile Hill (aka “Olds”). There were hundreds of people lined up in rows at the bottom of the hill. The scene was great—fast cars, the smell of race fuel, and the girls weren’t bad either. The weather was perfect; it was in the mid 80’s, so there were plenty of bikini babes in the crowd.

There goes Joe again.

While we were out there, I ran into Joe Fab from Sand Limo. He was giving the crowd a show and duning his new Super Hornet sandcar. I asked Joe if we could take some pictures, and he was nice enough to give us some shots for the readers of Off-Road.com. We also ran into the DezertRangers crew, they were very cool to us, so we hung out with them for a while. Ryan Lewis from Bonzen Productions was there with them—we talked about his new film Revalved. This new amazing desert film incorporates off-road racing and sand sports. I can’t wait to see it and do a review for our readers. Also hanging out with the DezertRangers was Dan Vance from Total Chaos/ESB Fabrications. He had his MDR 1450 race truck there with sand tires. I think it’s awesome when people aren’t afraid to bring their race vehicles out to play in the sand. Robby Gordon is a great example—who would of ever thought of bringing out a Trophy truck with sand paddles to Glamis?

Holy cats…check out the monster on the Rock Crawler.	Wow…a Ford T-bucket on paddles. Only at Glamis.
Another Spooky Ride…had to censor this one.	Duners do their part to promote trash clean up.

Later that afternoon we headed out to the sand drags off of Gecko Road. The ride out was insane—hundreds of people traveling on Sand Highway towards Gecko. Once there we met up with friends and parked to form part of the human sidelines for the sand drags. Thousands of people were there, and the excitement of the crowd could be felt. We got quite a show from the duners racing down the sand drags. There were plenty of buggies doing wheelies, engines roaring, and turbos spooling. To top it all off, we even got to see some people dressed up in costume. Elmo did his run on a Banshee. We also saw a group of three dirtbike riders that were dressed up like a hotdog, ketchup, and mustard. Superman flew down the drags. There were a few scary masks, but for the most part the costumes were fun and in good taste.

The DezertRangers Crew

The sand drags were extremely dusty. It was hard to see, and difficult to make out what was going by at times. As the sun set, we headed back to camp. The ride back was even more insane, there were more people traveling back on Sand Highway than on the way to Gecko. Hundreds of buggies, quads, trucks, and motorcycles raced back to vendors row and their camps. We made it back, got some dinner, and then headed out to Olds for the night action. The crowd was larger and more energetic than the one we had seen during the day. There were also numerous people dressed up for the event; we caught up with some of the participants like Captain America, Spiderman, and friends.

Avalanche Truggy from DuneBuggy.com	The Bonzen Girls

It was amazing to look at all the lights from afar. It was like a light show in the middle of the desert, and we had front row seats. We just sat back and enjoyed the scene. Everything was good until a truck full of girls got stuck in deep sand right in front of us. The girls inside were flashing for beads, so naturally all the guys surrounded them for a peak.

Amanda and Beth at the sand drags

This turned ugly pretty soon, with people pushing and shoving to see the monuments. The Sheriffs acted on it immediately and closed off that row and moved in with pepper-spray bullet guns. They called in a helicopter that provided air support by shinning down an extremely bright light and announcing for people to move away from the truck. Once they got the scene under control, they assisted the truck full of girls out of the deep sand—beads and all.

Scary Rhino	Hot Dogs Anyone?
Superman to the Rescue!	Back at camp doing a weenie-roast.

It wasn’t long before the helicopter came back and the Sheriffs lined up on the south side and started pushing people out. We raced up to the top of Olds and joined other people that were there to dune, and didn’t want to get caught up with the fiasco this ordeal was about to become. It took close to 45 minutes before the area at the bottom of Olds was completely cleared out. The Sheriffs wanted to get all partiers out of there. We waited patiently at the top until it was safe to come down. The stream of red lights heading out towards sand highway looked like gridlock on the I-10 Freeway on a Friday afternoon. I found out later the reason it took so long to get out was because a few vehicles got stuck on the way out, so they held up traffic behind them. What a zoo.

These guys get the Glamis Halloween Spirit Award!

The overall experience was great. The massive crowds didn’t bother me, but it did concern me while duning. All I can say is that we had a good time, we didn’t get hurt, and we only broke one sandcar. Not a bad way to kick off the dune season.

The things people will do for some Mardi Gras beads.	Let the night show begin!

For those of you that joined us Halloween weekend, it was nice seeing you. For those of you that couldn’t make it, we missed you; but don’t worry, we didn’t forget to make sure and take plenty of pictures so you wouldn’t miss out on the action. Check out the Glamis Halloween Weekend 2005 photo gallery for a taste of one of the wildest Halloween parties under the stars. Until next time, this is your friend DezertScorpion signing out—See you at the Dunes.