Day 6, Thursday: St. Anthony Sand Dunes, near Rexburg, Idaho
Just how big are the biggest dunes in North America? This is Stephen Watson's fullsize Blazer/buggy halfway up one of the medium sized dunes. Most of our group couldn't even make it up this one, and there were even bigger dunes than this at St. Anthony.
Our third trail day of UA 2006 brought us to the first ever trip to sand dunes on an Ultimate Adventure, and was it ever worth the wait. The St. Anthony Sand Dunes are recognized as the largest sand dunes in North America by covering 41,000 acres with peaks ranging from 200 to 300 feet. Since we had a few wheelers in our group who had never been to big dunes like these, we enlisted the Snake River Offroaders (www.snakeriveroffroaders.com) to help the newbies get used to the steep climbs while showing the entire troop the way through this massive sandbox.
The tricky thing to sand is remembering that even though it is soft and can quickly sink a tire-spinning 4x4, it isn't necessarily easy on equipment, especially when gas pedals hit firewalls and tires leave the ground. Of course, our band of merry dune jumpers quickly discovered that every perfect jump results in a more aggressive attack on the next rise and before long we had multiple vehicles broken. Good times!
When we first headed to the St. Anthony Sand Dunes there were quite a few big-dune newbies in our group. Mac Wilson of the Snake River Offroaders was so comfortable in the sand that he wasn't scared to haul his whole family to the top of even the steepest climbs. | 
Trent McGee had some tire-spinning action going on with his small-block Chevy V-8-powered Jeep. Trent has a day job talking about 4x4s on a TV show, and this resulted in many people recognizing him as "That Guy." | 
John Hughbanks' big-block Bronco was originally built for the dunes of Glamis in California, but he hadn't had a chance to really test his new coilover suspension in sand before we arrived at St. Anthony. Suffice to say that it worked great and John was not afraid to air it out. |
In the dunes it's a fine balance of momentum and control. Ben Swain and Christo Slee of Slee Off Road were carving a dune in their FJ-80 trayback pickup when that balance of momentum lost out to gravity. A busted windshield and tweaked A-pillar were the result, but nothing some Lexan and duct tape couldn't fix. | 
Feature Editor Jerrod Jones' big-block Blazer was also designed for sand duning good times, and when Mac McMillan from Yukon Gear got behind the wheel, that new engine was properly broken in. Running Radflo coilovers and Centerline's new bead-lock wheels, this Blazer is a great multi-terrain wheeler. | 
Though big motors rule the roost in the sand, the little guys weren't just floundering around and getting stuck. McMillan's 1-ton Yukon Gear Jeep TJ was having a good time with just the 4.0L straight six, and found that getting a long run at the dunes could result in some quality air. Unfortunately it can also result in a Dana 60 axle bashing into your oil pan. |
How do you like this oil-pan repair? Aluminum foil in the hole... | 
...sealed with Silicone... | 
...and covered with duct tape to make it back to camp. Had a local not found a replacement pan, Mac would have run it like this the rest of the week, and most likely been fine. |
Of course Carl St.Clair was not about to be outdone as he proceeded to launch his 4Runner over a dune and stuffed the front axle hard. The resulting carnage busted the steering off a knuckle and bent both balls on the ends of the housing. Carl and wife Page were having a very sleep-deprived Ultimate Adventure and this carnage resulted in another endless night of cutting, welding, and wrenching in order to swap new balls onto his front axle. Yes, in one night he and Steve Eagan, owner of the local shop C.B.I. Off-Road Fab (www.cbioffroadfab.com), rebuilt and refabricated a Toyota solid front axle. | | |