From the highest of a twenty story sand dune as the primary trickles of daylight crest the horizon I can really feel the total vastness of the world. An unimaginable pure show formed over hundreds of years, the Imperial Sand Dunes, lays out for miles in all instructions. Other than my travelling companions, the one proof of human existence inside my ken are the tire tracks of their full ship escapades. I’ve by no means felt the total depths of alone anyplace greater than right here, proper now.
Thank goodness I’ve received a 225-horsepower dose of paddle tires and full ship proper right here beside me.
Full disclosure: Polaris flew me to San Diego and transported me two and a half hours to the Glamis dunes for a few days ripping in a 2025 RZR Professional R. They provided me with a pleasant RV to sleep in and a handful of good meals. I received actually sick and slept so much, however that wasn’t their fault.
Camp RZR is an annual occasion hosted by Polaris for side-by-side fans out within the deepest depths of the Algodones Dunes in Southern California simply miles from borders with Mexico and Arizona, colloquially often called Glamis. Round Halloween yearly Camp RZR brings the social gathering to the dunes for the unofficial “opening weekend” of the dune using season. It’s manner too rattling scorching in the summertime to hang around round right here, so many of the weekend warriors don’t present up till the temperatures drop beneath 95 levels. And boy do they present up. Thanksgiving weekend is the busiest time of the yr in Glamis with an estimated 150,000 folks exhibiting up. This opening weekend is simply behind that with round 100,000 attendees.
Previous to my journey out into the dunes I had zero perspective on how massive the facet by facet neighborhood might be. Tens of hundreds of those mega-dollar toys are out right here ripping round and scorching dogging, it doesn’t seem to be anybody is holding something again. It’s full ship mode always, from solar as much as properly after midnight day-after-day. The night time runs at a few of the extra well-liked hills are possibly the sketchiest factor I’ve ever borne witness to, watching drunk-as-skunks yahoos in hopped up jalopies rip up hills at pace, then flip round and rip again down.
These sand hills are older than trendy society and declare to be the birthplace of the unique dune buggy. Within the pre-Meyers Manx days of dune using So Cal hot-rodders stripped down outdated Ford Mannequin T frames and outfitted them with balloon tires. The hill proven above is called Oldsmobile Hill as a result of it was considered as unimaginable to climb by these early dune junkies, till somebody shoved an Oldsmobile Rocket V8 of their jalopy and made contemporary tracks up the face of the hill. That 303 cubic inch V8 made an unimaginable 135 horsepower in 1949.
In a model new Polaris RZR Professional R climbing Oldsmobile is as straightforward as pointing the nostril uphill and urgent the throttle. These tiny Minnesota mech fits are really straightforward mode for almost any impediment. I couldn’t climb this hill underneath my very own energy, however give me a 2-liter four-cylinder, a CVT, a set of paddle tires, and 29 inches of suspension journey and I’ll rip my manner proper up a wall of sand.
It’s straightforward to see why folks gravitate towards these wild off-road machines, as a result of they’ll completely make any regular human a dune using celebrity. I’m most likely not going out and successful Dakar any time quickly, however going from near-zero dune expertise to drifting the facet of a 100-foot dune in a single day feels fairly rattling cool. Entering into an RZR Professional R is like placing on Superman’s cape. I’m all of the sudden able to extra, sooner, higher, farther.
So what’s Camp RZR? After finishing a day of dune using, we headed again to camp to take a look at the absurd spectacle of all of it. Whereas ostensibly a advertising train for Polaris, it is a complete carnival environment for everybody. They hauled a ferris wheel, fireworks, stay music, a laser mild present, a lighted drone show, and an enormous freestyle motocross setup out into the center of nowhere to offer folks one thing to do in between their dune rips.
My private favourite a part of Camp RZR, nonetheless, needed to be the Polaris repair it crew garages. With a couple of dozen mechanics working tirelessly, Polaris will settle for any of their autos in at no cost repairs to your desert fuckups. Of 1 RZR lacking its entrance left nook a mechanic stated “This man ran out of expertise and luck on the identical time, but when we have now the elements and the time, we’ll get him again on the market.” Whether or not its damaged suspension, a ripped CVT belt, or an exploded axle, Polaris is blissful to face behind their merchandise and get folks out using once more.
This hospitality extends past the confines of Polaris’ makeshift garages, too. Whereas we have been out using greater than as soon as we stopped to assist somebody dig out of deep sand or change a smoked drive belt. That’s what occasions like this are all about, the collective serving to the person and having a shit ton of enjoyable within the course of. We’re all out right here to benefit from the white of our knuckles, and we take the enjoyment with the ache. Isn’t that what life boils right down to?
I spent a weekend on the floor of a international planet driving a four-wheeled mech go well with able to traversing even essentially the most absurd geography conceivable. I get it now. I perceive the side-by-side craze higher after having immersed myself in it for a couple of days. These machines give humanity entry to completely new worlds. There isn’t a road-legal machine on the earth able to the type of desert ripping that one among these can handle. At $34,999 a Polaris RZR Professional R is a extremely costly toy, but it surely’s actually cheap for a spaceship.
