8.2-mile hike with a 950-foot elevation gain starting from a trailhead at the end of a 6-mile bumpy 4WD road. From the trailhead parking lot it is a 3.7-mile hike across a rocky, sandy flat just to get to the base of the dunes. From there we climbed up a steep ridge towards the summit of the highest dune, as far as we could before being stopped by a fierce wind and the need to get back before dark.