Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach

Ever since the kids saw Sand Dune Park a few weeks ago on our 10 mile hike in Manhattan Beach, they've been asking me when we were going to go. It's not quite as easy as just showing up and hiking it. But I heard their cries and went through all the steps to make it happen. 

And so, today, we're at Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach!

Before we could come though, I had to make a reservation. To do that, I had to create an account with a bit of personal info with the City of Manhattan Beach at citymb.info. After you pick your date, you have to select what time you're coming. Reservations are only for 1 hour, and then the dune is closed for 30 minutes before the next reservations are allowed in. It also costs to play in this public park. $1.05 for Manhattan Beach residents, and $3.16 for non-residents. Kids are free. The other bit of difficulty is that each adult needs their own account and their own reservation. This was implemented even before COVID.  

Our time has arrived! We found parking in a nearby lot and ran to the entrance!

Looking up at the Sand Dune, it's really steep, but nothing I could find stated how steep. Going through my pictures, I found one that looked to be representative. There's an online protractor overlay, and from the angles, my best guess is that this sandy slope is approximately 26 degrees. 

While Aubrey, Alli, Ian, and I are hiking up the hill, Theresa and her sister were at the bottom. 

Made it to the top! Whew! That is not easy! With the sand for every step you take up, you slide a half-step back. 

That's pretty steep. 

One of the things that the kids have been looking forward to is actually sliding down the dunes. They actually make sleds specifically for sliding on sand, but the city only allows standard cardboard. From what I've seen in my research, cardboard doesn't work very well for sledding. Like, not at all. 

We tried a couple times to just get moving, but as expected, the cardboard dug into the sand and didn't skid over the top. I'd planned ahead though and made sure that our cardboard pieces were extra long. I had the kids sit towards the back, grabbed a corner, and started running down the hill with the cardboard and kid in tow. 

What I didn't anticipate was the spray of sand that would be flying up in the kids' faces. Goggles would have been very nice to have. 

Alright, well I'm good! One run is plenty for me! 

Oh, I guess the kids aren't quite done then. Ian grabbed his cardboard and was already headed back up the hill. 

Alright, let's do this again. 

A quick breather at the top. 

This time I took Alli down. All the way from the top to the bottom. Backwards. And pulling a little girl on a cardboard sled who wants to go "medium fast". 

We'll finish off with a couple videos. The first is from the sledding. 

After we were done with the sledding the kids wanted to continue playing. I think Ian took 6 more trips up the hill, and Alli 5 more trips, just to have the fun of galloping down the hill. Ian wiped out during his first try, but recovered after brushing all the sand off his face. They both loved coming here, and we stayed all the way until our hour was up!