Unmarked Trails, Hidden Black Sand Dunes, and Riding Over Trees in the Mt. Washington Wilderness

Lots of surprises on this motorcycle exploration adventure in the area surrounding Oregon's Mt. Washington. After riding our dual sport motorcycles to check out some small mountain lakes, we decided to head down some unknown trails for a true dual sport motorcycle adventure. Lots of hopping over downed trees and riding rocky technical sections ensued. Probably the biggest surprise of this off road motorcycle adventure was when we stumbled upon a massive series of black sand dunes high up in the Oregon Cascades. These dunes seemed to go on for miles and afforded us great views of Three Fingered Jack and other surrounding peaks. Many people think riding dual sport motorcycles on the sand is a bad idea because they're so heavy, but my Suzuki DRZ400S and my buddy's Yamaha WR250R did just great on the sand and we had a ton of fun ripping it up. We capped off our day of off road motorcycle exploration by finding a snowmobile shelter cabin and following new trails (including one memorable dead end) and winding our way back through some technical motorcycle trail riding to finally come out at the Santiam OHV staging area near Hoodoo.