Kelso Dunes

About twelve miles south of Kelso Depot, the Kelso Dunes pile up into the largest field of blown sand in the Mojave, some 45 square miles of quartz and feldspar, with the highest crest standing about 650 feet above the flats. The sand did not come from here. It blew east off the Mojave River sink and the Devil's Playground over thousands of years and stalled against the Granite and Providence mountains, which trap it in place. What makes the dunes famous is their voice. Kelso is one of only a few dozen booming or singing dune fields on Earth, and when dry sand avalanches down the steep upper faces it sets off a low, resonant hum you can feel through your feet as much as hear, a sound produced only when the grains are rounded, uniform, and dry enough. To make it happen you climb to the top of the tallest dune, a genuine effort in shifting sand, and slide back down the leeward slope; on a dry day it rumbles like a distant engine. The trail is about three miles round trip and unmarked past the first stretch, because the wind erases any path. Come in the cool months, carry far more water than feels necessary, and start early. Late in the day the low sun rakes the dunes into long gold ridges, and the silence between booms is total.