Coral Pink Sand Dunes: UTV Sunset Tour, S'mores & Stargazing

4.99

(165 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I never really understood what “pink sand” meant until we rolled up to Coral Pink Sand Dunes just before sunset. The color isn’t quite pink—more like the last blush on someone’s cheek after laughing too hard. Our guide, Mike (who looked like he’d lived in these dunes forever), handed us helmets and grinned, “You’ll get sand everywhere, but that’s half the fun.” He wasn’t kidding. The UTV jolted to life and we tore off, wind whipping and this weird mix of cool air and sun-warmed grit hitting my face. I could hear someone behind me whooping every time we crested a dune—maybe that was me? Hard to tell with all the noise.

We stopped for sand sledding just as the sky started doing that thing where it turns gold then purple at the edges. I tried sledding twice—first time I wiped out so hard I got sand in my ears (Mike just laughed and tossed me another board). There was this moment when everything went quiet except for the crunch of our boots and one kid trying to roast a marshmallow way too early. You can smell the sugar even before you taste it—marshmallows charring just enough, chocolate melting onto graham crackers. It’s sticky, messy, perfect.

When we finally made it up to the overlook, nobody said much for a minute. You get this 360-degree view that makes you feel both tiny and kind of lucky to be there at all. The stars showed up slow at first—a few pinpricks—and then suddenly there were more than I could count. Someone pointed out Mars (I think?), but honestly I was too busy just lying back in the cool sand, eating another s’more, not really caring about anything except maybe how long I could stay before heading back. I still think about that sky sometimes.