Special Events

The Grant Co. Sheriffs Dept and the Washington State Department of Wild Life has granted our group special clearance to enter the yellow zone on Saturday Nov 3rd 2007 from 11AM to 3PM. This area has been closed to all off road vehicles since Oct 1st 2007. We have been offered this clearance in order to participate in a mud flats clean up. The reason for the time restriction is to allow the hunters time for their morning and evening hunts. As all you off roaders know there is a lot of trash left out in this area and we have not had a chance to clean it up. This also allows us one last chance to venture out to the mud for a little fun while helping keep this special area clean.

Remember it wasn't long ago when we were fighting to keep this area open to off road use and we almost lost it. Now is the time to show the Government agencies how we respect this privilege. The Sheriffs ORV officers will be available and handing out trash bags for us to use. We are planning on meeting at the south end of Moses Lake at 10:30 AM and leaving on this run at 11:00 AM. Be sure and bringing warm clothes and gloves and empty out the back of your truck as I'm sure we can fill them up. For more info call me at 398 2616 Rich Archer.

Yellow Zone ( mud flats ) last chance clean up. Nov. 3rd 2007

FIRST DRAFT LETTER TO IAC and NOVA

Dear Sir’s

Our group the Sand Scorpions based in Moses Lake has a membership of over 410 families from all over the Northwest. We primarily use the Moses Lake ORV area but often travel to other dune areas as the Oregon sand dunes and the Saint Anthony sand dunes in Idaho.

Our ORV area has by far the most primitive facilities we have experienced. It is also the largest area in Washington State and has the largest group of ORV users. We have over 2800 acres to use and at times have in access of 6000 users.

At the most we have only 2 permanent rest rooms and 10 porta-potties for these users over a 3 day weekend. As you can imagine the condition of the rest rooms by the end of the weekend can be horrendous. So bad that our group rents our own porta-potties for our members to use, as we will have over 300 members in our camp alone.

The distance from the 1st camping area at the West entrance to the 1st rest room is ½ mile and another mile to the 2nd rest room. We have at least 7 different areas where the campers congregate and we need better facilities. People relieving themselves at the end of their campers are not very sanitary, as our children play everywhere. The West entrance has the most camping available with the least facilities.

We, Washington State ORV users feel it is time to improve this area as it has been rated one of the 10 best sand dune areas in the Unites States of America and is defiantly a destination point for off road users.

We would like to see several improvements considered in the next budget for this special area. Our members will be available to help improve this resource. Our suggestions are as follows.

#1. Build a two stall handicap accessible rest room at the west entrance camping area where most of the users

camp.

#2.Improve the camping areas by grading them to remove the excess sand from the entrance and leveling them.

Also add more gravel and define with a boundary.

#3. Better signage.

#4. Pour cement pads at each camping area for the dumpsters and for the extra porta-potties needed on the big

weekend. This will also make them more accessible to the handicapped ORVers

#5. Improve access to the existing dumpsters as they are too high for most users to access, over 8ft tall.

#6. Provide scheduled maintenance to keep the rest rooms clean and sanitary.

Sand Scorpion members are very proud of this area and have 4 different organized clean ups scheduled every year one after each 3 day weekend and one at the end September to clean up the yellow zone we share with the hunters.

Our group is also registered with the Superior and District courts in Grant County and monitors the community service workers who provide litter control the rest of the year. This is a great service to our community.

We also help with search and rescue, organized off road events, and assist the Grant Co Sheriffs Dept as needed.

All in all we are responsible for hundreds of man hours to keep this area safe and clean for our ORV families each year.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at (509) 398-2616, or to see what we are about visit our web site at www.sandscorpion.net.

Sincerely,

Sand Scorpion Directors;

Rich Archer, Lyle Labes, Ken Daley, Dave Phillips, Jeff VanNess, Jose Hernandez., Stan Cafferty Sept 2008

Sand Scorpion Members!

The Grant Co Sheriffs ORV officers have asked us to draft a letter to IAC and NOVA; the Washington State agency's in charge of funding the Moses Lake Sand Dunes in order to get funding for improvements. Below you will see the 1st draft of this letter as we are hoping to get better restroom facilities and camping areas. If you have any suggestions or comments let me know. email me at rparcher@homenetnw.net or call 509 398 2616 Rich Archer Thanks. Sept 2008

Yellow Zone ( mud flats ) last chance clean up. - UPDATE!!

The yellow zone clean up was a great success with 13 members showing up to participate. We had quite a selection of vehicles from pick ups, quads, suvs, even a old 1/4 ton jeep trailer. They hauled out 3 heaping loads of junk from old engines and transmissions, mattresses, water heater, and loads of trash.

The Grant Co Sheriffs Dept supplied the trash bags and even helped in the clean up . Our new ORV officers are the best we have had in years, as these guys not only enforce the laws they truly enjoy our sport. Every one had a great time joking around yet getting the job done.

We would like to thank everyone who helped from the Grant County Sheriffs Department, the Department of Wild Life; who gave us the permission to be there, and the members of the Sand Scorpions who participated.

GREAT JOB!!!! Oct 2008

New Years Fireworks Sales.

Yes we will be selling fireworks for new years at two locations in Moses Lake. Jack is so pleased with our group he has asked us to man a second stand for Discount Fireworks. The first stand will be located at the Grant Co. Fair grounds in the blue parking lot same as on the 4th of July and the second at Stan's Repair on East Frontage Rd near Interstate 90.

Last year we were over in Soap Lake and really struggled to make any sales due to the location. But since then we found out we can sell in the county and we have moved to the Moses Lake area.

On the 4th we sold $76,000 at the Grant Co Fair Grounds an new record for us. We are hoping that having stands at the fair grounds (a proven and established stand) and the one at Stan's Repair will give us coverage at both ends of Moses Lake especially next to Interstate 90. The I 90 stand has great visibility from the freeway and we should be able to pick up loads of customers who just happen to be driving by.

Sounds like the AARP members will be helping us at the fair grounds but we will probably be on our own at the Stan's Repair location. We are looking for volunteers at both locations so sign up now.

Selling fireworks is great fun and very rewarding for our group as the BUCKS we make help support all the really cool things we do from the offroad events we sponsor to the family events we do and the improvements to race/party trailer we all own.

Support the Sand Scorpions and sign up today. Contact

Rich Archer at 398-2616 or Stan Cafferty at 760-0667 Jan 2008

I talked to the ORV officer today and It is looking good for our rest rooms at the west entrance parking lot. Looks like we will be getting a two stall restroom installed this year. I will let you know when as soon as I know for sure. Jan 6th 2008

UPDATE

Grant Co commissioners have pulled through and we will be getting our new rest rooms this year sometime this spring. When they go in we will be there to improve the parking areas. Watch this page for updates as I will let you know the dates as soon as I know them. March 3 2008

The Sandscorpion directors had our 2008 planning meeting to discuss the new schedule for 2008.The Grant Co Sheriffs dept and Mick Hanson attended. You can see the new schedule on the schedule page. The Sheriff dept submitted our letter of recommendations for improvements to the dunes to the county commissioners and the IAC NOVA comities for review. Mick has also offered to loan us the use of his equipement to improve the parking/camping areas at the dunes. Mick has dozers, dump trucks, and graders for us to use, we will provide the fuel. We will set a date for early spring for the improvements so stay tuned. Dec 2007.

. Mark Archer crested a dune on Friday Night Memorial weekend and ended up hitting a quad head on. Mark was uninjured but the quad rider ended up with some serious injuries. I don,t have much info other than he is from the West side of the state. From what I have been able to find out from the ORV Sheriffs he was air lifted to Harbor View in Seattle and is in stable condition

N.A.S.A. is testing some of thier moon rover equipement at the Moses lake sand dunes. One of our members e-mailed me a couple of pictures fo the rovers and so on Sunday I decided to check it out myself. Way cool ! I walked into thier camp and introduced myself and after a couple of minutes was checking out all the cool stuff. The NASA people were very friendly. I took thies pictures of there camp and sounds like more to come word is that the realy cool stuff is still to come. Check out the little mini rovers and the 12 wheeled 2 man rover. If you look real close you can see where 1 pare of wheels are raised up about 1 ft. Some how they broken a part and the enginier is kneeling down in front trying to get it repaired. The small tower you can see in front of the tent when fished will be a 3 story crain being assembled for unloading equipement. Sounds like they will be here for a couple of weeks testing. If you can come on out and check them out. 1 June 1 08.