Where to Run · Michigan
Silver Lake Sand Dunes
The only place east of the Mississippi you can legally run dunes. It is a fraction of the size of the western dune fields, so the ORV permit, the separate Silver Lake dune permit, and the whip flag all get checked at the gate. Great intro dune run for Midwest owners who have never aired down.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Air down
- 15-18 psi
- Season
- Apr-Oct
- Mapped trail
- 67 mi
- Elevation
- 618 ft
Trail map & conditions
67 miles of motorized routes within twelve kilometres of the anchor point, drawn from OpenStreetMap. Green lines are the network; zoom for detail.
Drive to
Collin Hansen ORV Welcome Center / Silver Lake ORV Area entrance
8505 W Fox Rd, Mears, MI 49436
- Search in your maps app
- “Silver Lake State Park ORV Welcome Center”
- GPS (entry)
- 43.67861, -86.51111
ORV registration decal and Recreation Passport sticker required, sold at the Welcome Center; a 10-ft whip flag is mandatory; open April 1 - Oct 31 only. Coordinates are park-level (Welcome Center sits about a quarter mile east of the actual dune entrance).
Entry info: michigan.gov
The rules of this place
Vehicle counts and riding hours are strictly capped, so show up early on a weekend or you will be turned away at the entrance.
Also worth the trailer miles
Glamis / Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area
The proving ground. Oldsmobile Hill, Razorback, Comp Hill, and China Wall separate the trucks from the trailer queens. Gecko Road and Wash Road are the mellow on-ramps if you are new to sand.
Johnson Valley OHV Area
Home of King of the Hammers, roughly 96,000 acres of open BLM land, free, no permit. The fast desert washes and graded roads out of Hammertown are Raptor territory; Backdoor, Sledgehammer, and Chocolate Thunder are built for buggies on 40s, not full-size trucks.
Moab
Slickrock and ledge country. Fins & Things and Hell's Revenge are doable in a full-size on 35s if you pick your line; Poison Spider, Top of the World, and Gemini Bridges are fine on the easier bypasses. Pritchett Canyon and the tightest slots on Hell's Revenge are not — a Raptor is too wide and the recovery bill is real.