From the highest of a twenty story sand dune as the primary trickles of daylight crest the horizon I can really feel the complete vastness of the world. An unbelievable pure show formed over 1000’s 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 complete depths of alone anyplace greater than right here, proper now.
Thank goodness I’ve obtained 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 equipped me with a pleasant RV to sleep in and a handful of good meals. I obtained actually sick and slept quite a bit, however that wasn’t their fault.
Camp RZR is an annual occasion hosted by Polaris for side-by-side lovers out within the deepest depths of the Algodones Dunes in Southern California simply miles from borders with Mexico and Arizona, colloquially generally known as Glamis. Round Halloween yearly Camp RZR brings the social gathering to the dunes for the unofficial “opening weekend” of the dune driving season. It’s means too rattling sizzling in the summertime to hang around round right here, so many of the weekend warriors don’t present up till the temperatures drop under 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 giant the facet by facet group could possibly be. Tens of 1000’s of those mega-dollar toys are out right here ripping round and sizzling dogging, it doesn’t appear to be anybody is holding something again. It’s full ship mode always, from solar as much as nicely after midnight day-after-day. The evening runs at among the extra fashionable hills are perhaps 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 fashionable society and declare to be the birthplace of the unique dune buggy. Within the pre-Meyers Manx days of dune driving So Cal hot-rodders stripped down previous 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 not possible 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 unbelievable 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 actually 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 means 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 driving famous person. I’m in all probability not going out and profitable 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 instantly able to extra, sooner, higher, farther.
So what’s Camp RZR? After finishing a day of dune driving, we headed again to camp to take a look at the absurd spectacle of all of it. Whereas ostensibly a advertising and marketing train for Polaris, this can be a complete carnival ambiance 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 provide folks one thing to do in between their dune rips.
My private favourite a part of Camp RZR, nevertheless, needed to be the Polaris repair it crew garages. With a couple of dozen mechanics working tirelessly, Polaris will settle for any of their automobiles in totally free repairs to your desert fuckups. Of 1 RZR lacking its entrance left nook a mechanic mentioned “This man ran out of expertise and luck on the identical time, but when we’ve got the components 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 joyful to face behind their merchandise and get folks out driving once more.
This hospitality extends past the confines of Polaris’ makeshift garages, too. Whereas we had been out driving greater than as soon as we stopped to assist somebody dig out of deep sand or exchange 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 all the way 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 probably the most absurd geography possible. 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 thoroughly new worlds. There isn’t a road-legal machine on the planet able to the sort of desert ripping that one in every of these can handle. At $34,999 a Polaris RZR Professional R is a very costly toy, but it surely’s actually cheap for a spaceship.
