Our friends joined us, so there were five in our group. We rode on two doubles and a single. I must warn you that sitting on the back of a double is not nearly as comfortable as sitting in the driver’s seat. If I were to do this again, I would choose a single for comfort.

We were quite excited as we got outfitted with helmets, goggles, and bandanas, all which would eventually be needed, and we left town in a caravan of ATVs. There were two groups of us, with 9 vehicles per group, each led by a guide.

We traveled about 20 minutes in our caravan down town streets and neighborhoods, on our way out to the Pacific. We enjoyed driving through the residential streets, as we had an opportunity to see behind the scenes and lifestyles of the tourist life in Cabo. Here was the real Mexico, with dirt roads, laundry hanging, children gathering, dogs and chickens in the streets, and roosters crowing. As we approached our destination, we traveled up a wide dirt road, on quite an incline, to the top of a hill and a gated entrance. A small fee to use the park ahead was collected and we proceeded through to the top of a rise.

There before, and below us, was the Pacific Ocean, sparkling in the sunshine, and the most massive sand dunes I had ever seen, stretching out all before us, as far as the eye could see. What a view!!! For me, this extraordinary, impressive scenery was the highlight of this tour. One has to see this sight to believe it!

Here, we were pretty much given free reign to drive over the massive dunes, and to drive a selection of 5 trails that were well marked. We could take a water break, when needed, in a central place.

After a good deal of fun, we gathered to see the sun setting over the Pacific--quite a beautiful, colorful sunset it was, with whales breeching in the foreground.

We once again joined our tour group, and traveled in our caravan back to town, as darkness fell, and a chill in the air came up. Arriving back at Baja’s parking lot, we still felt the exhilaration of this trip, and agreed that it was a tour not to be missed.

Cost: $50 single, $70 double

Do not forget your camera!

Baja's offer both single rider ($45 US) and double rider ($60 US) ATVs. Our adventure started with the doubles since the kids weren't old enough to drive on the streets. The nice thing about the doubles is they are automatics, so easier to drive while the singles were manual speed. When you arrive for your tour, you are given a helmet, a pair of sweaty goggles, and a bandana. We threw the goggles around our neck along with our banadana and mistakenly thought our sunglasses would be sufficient. Let me explain to you that there are more dirt roads in Cabo than there are paved roads. To get to the lighthouse, you are on a paved road for only a matter of minutes, then you turn off onto one of many dirt roads and the sunglasses no longer work. After much dirt and sand being thrown up into our eyes and face, we decided it was time to put on the goggles, regardless of how gross they appeared to be! We also moved the bandana up around our mouth and nose, looking like Mexican banditos, in an effort to breath a little easier amongst all the dust. We definitely looked the part by now!

All the ATVs were driving along in a row on our way to the lighthouse. Once there, the tour guide broke out some water to quench our thirst. We didn't stay here long, not much to see. There's a small shack where the keeper of the lighthouse lives. There is a fence around the entire area, so there's not much to walk around and see. We were then off to the sand dunes. When we arrived, I was amazed at how large these sand dunes were. I was one of many that tried to make it up one and got stuck and had to flag down the tour guide, in embarassment, to come push me out! Once at the dunes, the kids were allowed to drive the ATVs. I'm glad they told me they had the throttle in all the way, going as fast as they could, AFTER their ride was over. I wouldn't have wanted to have known that before hand. We spent quite a bit of time here, and again the tour guide had plenty of bottled water to digest since it was pretty hot and dusty. After spending a while at the beach, it was back to where we started. We all really enjoyed driving and riding on the ATVs. By the time we arrived back at the hotel, we were filthy and covered in dust from our head to our toes - but it was worth it!