The Loneliest Road leads downward, the high mountain flora fades and the landscape is more and more alkaline flats. The weather warms. And then, over a hill, for the first time on the entire Loneliest Road we see trash: beer cans, plastic fast-food bags, half-eaten sandwiches chucked into the scrub: The end of the allegorical Lonely Road. For while civilization is still many miles away, I know the trash indicates what's on the end of this slope.
It's called Sand Mountain, and it's the second largest sand dune in North America. Sand Mountain is a seif-dune, and was molded from the sands of dried up Lake Lahontan. In the Pleistocene, this sea covered the Great Basin.
Sand Mountain is BLM land, and it has been designated in part for the use of off road vehicles. The uniquely steep, soft and rolling grades of this mountain of sand have created a dreamscape for gasoline-powered fun.
As we roll into the Sand Mountain Recreation Area, we see off-roading at its finest: homemade dune buggies wheelyin' it up steep slopes and Hondas soaring in mid-air. Loud fun at sixty miles per hour.
But remember this: Sand Mountain is the size of about four Home Depot's. Sand Mountain, next to Nevada itself, is over on aisle 8, between the screws and the grommets.
I take a walk into Sand Mountain town, a mess of RV's and trucks, people with toolboxes under the hoods of dune buggies and four-wheelers. There are 7,800 off-roaders at Sand Mountain this weekend, the largest crowd here in history.
An elder couple cooking some hot dogs and drinking Buds invites me into their camp to ask me how I hurt my arm. Both are deeply tanned. The purple beer can coolers say Happy Daze, Happy Wayz. The man shows his missing teeth when I say, “tail pipe burn.” Flipping the hot dogs, he says, “We don’t go up there,” Referring to the towering dunes above. “We jus’ puddle around the base here.”
By the end of this weekend, 26 injuries will be counted. Rumors of deaths on Sand Mountain are whispering through the village.
A BLM representative will later write, ‘I… wanted to let everyone know that fortunately there were no deaths this weekend. There were a number of serious injuries; head trauma, broken pelvis, open ankle fracture, severe lacerations and some less serious injuries; dehydration, pipe burns, broken collarbone, etcetera. To my knowledge, even the worst injury - head trauma to a child - had a good prognosis for a complete recovery. And in case anyone asks, yes, the child was wearing a helmet.’
Teenage duner-girls dispose of waste properly at Sand Mountain. Jon Crowley Jr. of Friends of Sand Mountain helps educate the off-roading community about protecting the environment.
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