Thanksgiving is a time of celebration and recollection combined with good friends and family. you'll find much of the population stuffi ng themselves with holiday food and plopping down on a sofa to catch sports games or headed to the mall. Then there are those who cure the holiday itch with a trip to the sandbox... the Imperial Sand dunes, that is.
In far southeastern california lies this huge playground that attracts hundreds of thousands of dune enthusiasts over the Thanksgiving weekend. every size and shape of vehicle with a motor converges on this area to sling sand and enjoy the natural beauty of this large expanse of silty material.
Our destination over the holiday was the gordon's Well area at the southern end of the Imperial recreation area. We packed a camera and roosted some sand ourselves while chasing down some photos. We've brought you a sampling of what we saw while we were there during the holiday. Turkey sure tastes great in the dunes; you just may find a little grit mixed in between your teeth. Enjoy.
One good thing about a healthy windstorm is that it erases the tracks made by the many vehicles. Fresh dunes are a joy to play in, and the color across them made by the early morning sun is spectacular. |  | 
Riding continues well into the dark hours as the temps drop rapidly, as is common in desert, arid areas. Running cross-country through the dunes at night is an interesting experience as headlights cast an ominous glow across the sandy hills. |
A lot of the high-dollar rails sport elaborate paintjobs, and there was no shortage of bling to be found at the drags or at the general store near the freeway exit to Gordon's Well. | 
The guys in this camp brought out several hot-sand drag cars. These big-block monsters thundered across the sand and idled over the whoops at the bottom of the hills. Once they got to the smooth base of the hill, they shot up the slope in an incredibly short time. | 
On the popular weekends it's not uncommon to see desert race trucks tearing through the sand. The heavy drone of a big-block engine torquing its way up the slopes is impressive. |
Permit Information
Access to the Imperial Sand Dunes is granted by purchasing a camping/use permit from one of the on-location kiosks or online at www.imperialsanddunes.org. Weekly permits are $25 and full-season permits are $90. This allows you to drive and park a primary vehicle in the recreation area.
All vehicles operated off-highway on public lands in California are required to be street-licensed or registered as an off-highway vehicle (OHV). If you are visiting California from another state and your vehicle does not have current registration from your home state, you must purchase a California nonresident OHV-use permit before you go off-roading.
Watch For Closed Areas
There are some areas in the dunes that are marked off-limits to motor vehicles. Be wary of these markers and stay out of the closed areas. Obeying the signs will help ensure that access areas are left open for our motorized pursuits.
It's always easy to spot this monster rig towering above most anything else in the crowd. Massively arched leaf springs are used to allow running huge 49-inch Super Swamper Iroks underneath. | 
When like-vehicles line up, you're bound to see some good-natured race challenges to see who can get to the far end of the strip the fastest. | 
We like checking out the custom-fab details on a lot of the rails. Cadillac Northstar, Corvette, Honda VTEC, and Subaru motors were all well represented. This trick dual-outlet SuperTrapp caught our eye as well. |
We usually see at least one nice truck that's been rolled each time we hit the dunes. Sand can be tricky and sidehilling can tip you over if you're not careful. Best thing to do is usually steer downhill and gas it out of a tippy situation, though it doesn't always work. | 
This guy's not churning a set of beefy paddle tires. He's stuck at the dragstrip digging in the right rear tire. Momentum is your friend and airing down tires helps keep them floating on top of the silty stuff. | 
We spotted a fair number of Jeeps running in the dunes from stockish Wranglers to this '55 CJ. He had a mean, lopey engine under the hood and was able put a lot of sand behind him when he mashed the pedal. It was cool to see a short-wheelbase vehicle with leaf springs hook up and move so quickly. |
Trucks built for high-speed desert often get a tire swap to paddles. We saw a lot of cool hardware from garage builders to fully pro-built rigs. Checking out all the vehicles parked at the drags can keep you plenty busy. | 
These guys were having a great time hanging out at the drags on their custom golfcart. We saw a wide variety of homebrew carts set up with ATV tires and long-travel suspensions. | 
There's been a huge growth in UTV popularity, and we saw plenty of them running the sand. Side-by-sides were zipping families over the smaller dunes, and there were a lot of fully modified ones as well. |
Each afternoon at Gordon's Well, hordes of people line up on the sand highway above Dune Buggy Flats to stage an informal dragstrip. It's all run-what-ya-brung and everybody plays from those driving stock trucks to full-blown desert race rigs. | 
You see all manner of homebrew rigs here. This one, named Rigasaurus, seats at least six with tons of room for cargo. Chevy truck axles have been combined with a coiled and linked suspension to make for a big family vehicle for cruising the sand. | 
Pick the right camp spot and you can back up next to the open sand. You get a great view, and you can start playing right after you pull out of camp. |
These little ones made numerous passes down the dragstrip in their long-travel cart. |  |  |