14 The Oregon Dunes

The Oregon Dunes run northward from Coos Bay up the coast for forty miles, and are a favorite playground for ATV drivers. There are a number of ATV rental businesses along the Oregon Coast Highway.

This was a particularly difficult place to fly, because there was no launch point near the place where the ATVs entered the dunes. I had to fly a mile to get over where the ATVs were driving. Then, when I tried to go lower to video them, the enormous dunes interfered with radio contact with my drone. My iPad screen turned black and displayed ‘Contact with aircraft lost’ several times.

I mention that to explain why the videos show tiny insects crawling around the dunes rather than closer views of the vehicles. I am showing these videos to illustrate how immense forty miles of sand dunes look, and how they dwarf the tiny humans and their vehicles.

This sport must look to you frivolous and fun, but these are heavy vehicles racing around at high speed on uneven terrain. There are occasional crashes in which riders are killed. One occurred as I was processing the videos for these galleries. The article also reports on two earlier crashes.