2B | WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS
SANDLAND from page 1B
sand or get stuck and need
help, and we had to have
something to go out and
do it. When we had just the
rentals, we didn’t have any-
thing for little kids to do,
so Dad started giving Mom
and the little kids a ride in
one of the buggies to check
on the families and get out
and see the sand. People
kept saying we should give
tours in them, so they built
a couple of buggies and
started giving tours.”
In 1990, Chris and Darla
moved down to Florence
from Spokane with their
daughters to help Larry and
Ilene with the business. At
that point, Chris and Larry
started building the tour
buggies using Volkswagen
engines.
“They’d carry five people
max — four average sized
adults or five if we had two
little kids,” Chris said. “We
ran those for a lot of years,
but the problem with the
Volkswagens was as people
got bigger, the [engines]
didn’t have enough power.
We would go through three
or four engines per buggy
a year, and we had six bug-
gies. We knew we had to do
something different.”
Initially, Larry didn’t
want to change because he
knew the Volkswagen en-
gines and how to work on
them.
“He didn’t want to move
to fuel injected engines
run by computers; he just
couldn’t wrap his head
around something that
didn’t fail, but in all the
time we’ve been running,
we’ve never had a computer
fail,” Chris said.
In 2005, Chris and Dar-
la purchased the dune
buggy side of the business
from Larry and Ilene and
started building the long
travel buggies they cur-
rently operate. Larry and
Ilene continued to run the
amusement park portion
of Sandland until their re-
tirement in 2010, at which
point Chris and Darla pur-
chased the remainder of the
family business.
“We’ve been doing all
of it since then,” said Dar-
la. “Our daughters would
come home when they were
going to college and help us
with the business.”
The Hagues’ two larg-
er buggies are designed to
handle a full coach of peo-
ple, fitting 27 on each giant
buggy. This way, Sandland
can accommodate large
tour groups comfortably.
“Chris and his dad built
the big buggies with Dale
Jackson, who worked for
us for a lot of years,” said
Darla. “They started out
as school buses, and they
stripped them down to the
bare frame and got rid of
the body.”
“The body we took off
and made the tunnel for the
train we have,” Chris add-
ed. “My dad designed the
railroad. We haven’t been
able to run it in the last few
years, because we just don’t
have the manpower to do
it.”
The Hagues ran the gi-
ant buggies with the origi-
nal school bus engines for
many years, until about five
years ago when they up-
graded the motors.
“We couldn’t get the
same tires we’d been using
for years and years; Good-
year Quit making them,”
Chris explained. “So, we
changed tires, but the only
tires we could get were
quite a bit bigger, and a lot
heavier with full tread on,
so now the engines didn’t
have enough power. So, we
had to change the engine to
be able to turn all of that.”
This turned out in their
favor.
“It actually worked out
better because we found
that these new engines,
even though they were
much larger engines with
a lot more power, got prob-
ably close to twice the fuel
economy because they’re
fuel injected, which is a lot
more efficient. So, we get
much better power and a
lot better fuel economy
now,” he said.
After being in business
for 35 years this summer,
there are many reasons
Sandland Adventures hap-
pens to be the number one
rated tour in Florence on
Tripadvisor. First and fore-
most is safety.
“We spend the time to
train our drivers,” Chris
said. “Our rule of thumb is,
if I wouldn’t send my kids
out with them, I’m not go-
ing to send somebody else’s
kids out with them.”
Knowing that safety
comes first for the Hagues
allows visitors to relax and
enjoy the ride, which is the
next thing that sets Sand-
land apart from other tours.
“As far as the experience,
we’ve always strived to give
people a consistent, excit-
ing, fun experience, while
seeing one of the most
special areas in this state,
if not the country,” Darla
said. “The dunes are just so
unique and beautiful, so to
be able to give people a fun
ride out while seeing this
natural wonder is pretty
cool.”
“And it’s different every
time you go out,” Chris
added. “We have people
who come back year after
year, and if you come in the
spring, it will look entirely
different than if you come
in the middle of summer or
the fall.”
When people take a tour
on a sandrail, they have the
opportunity to see vari-
ous features of the Oregon
Dunes National Recreation
Area (ODNRA) guided by
one of Sandland’s expert
drivers, such as Gage Mill-
er. Miller is currently in his
fourth year driving for the
Hagues, having learned
to drive stick shift on the
dunes when he was only 10
years old.
He was knowledgeable
about the features of the
ODNRA, its wildlife and
history.
Then, when he took the
tour flying through the
dunes at 55 or more miles
per hour, Miller made sure
the tour group felt safe at all
times.
According to Chris, the
autumn is often when the
dunes are the biggest be-
cause the winds blow all
summer and build them
up. The dunes tend to flat-
ten over the winter, but this
provides an opportunity for
little ponds to form, as well
as patterns and formations
in the sand.
The park runs from
March through December,
so visitors can enjoy the
dunes almost year-round,
with the busiest times of the
season being during spring
break and summer.
“From the first of July on,
it’s always super busy every
day,” Darla said. “We’ve al-
ways been open seven days
a week from Memorial
Day through Labor Day,
and this year was the first
time we closed for one day
during summer.”
Sandland is closed to the
public in January and Feb-
ruary for maintenance.
“It’s the time of year when
we strip the buggies to the
bare frame and repaint and
put them all back together,”
said Darla. “We usually do
half of the fleet one year and
the next year we do the oth-
er half and keep rotating, so
we can keep our equipment
in good condition. Then we
have less maintenance in
the summer when we need
them running.”
According to Chris, “We
try and fix things before
they break, because if we
wait until they break out
on the sand, it’s much more
difficult to fix out there
than it is in the shop.”
Between the weather
conditions of the dunes and
the number of hours the ve-
hicles run, the maintenance
is definitely necessary, and
the Hagues are on top of it
constantly to ensure that
guests have a fun and safe
time at their park.
“On average, this year we
probably do 30-plus rides a
day on the sandrails,” said
Darla. “It used to be a lot
more, but we’re not running
all the buggies this year; we
normally have five running,
and this year we’re running
four max.”
Then, each buggy usu-
ally does seven to 10 trips
each day, depending on the
length of tours.
A couple weeks ago, “We
had a group of about 50, so
it took us two runs to get
them out. Usually, a group
of 32 we can get out in one
run,” Darla said.
Sandland hosts summer
camps from all over the
country, and tour groups
often opt to stay at Honey-
man State Park then ride on
a buggy tour.
Chris and Darla recom-
mend booking in advance
for groups of 50 or 100, but
smaller groups will have an
easier time booking in the
near future. This summer,
tour companies are starting
to come back to the area
after the pandemic caused
Sandland to experience
their first year without any
tour groups in 2020.
After refunding all of
their reservations on the
books in March 2020, for-
tunately, in May they were
allowed to reopen with re-
strictions.
“Because everything we
offer was outdoors, there
were less restrictions at that
time,” Darla said. “We shut
the office down and helped
everybody through the
plexiglass window, which
was something we added
because at that time, the
restrictions meant nobody
could be inside.”
Sandland also required
people to wear face cov-
erings and purchased an
ozone machine to disinfect
helmets and goggles. Now
that things are almost back
to “normal,” face coverings
are not required, but Sand-
land still takes great care
to disinfect equipment be-
tween each trip.
The park is still down a
couple of drivers after the
pandemic, as it is currently
too late in the season to be-
gin to train new drivers.
“We want to know for
sure that they’re ready to
drive and take people out
there,” Darla. “So, by the
time we get to this point in
our season, we’re too busy
to train, because our guys
are all on the sand every
day.”
The training process is
intense, and drivers prac-
tice for a minimum of two
weeks behind the wheel be-
fore being allowed to drive
buggies on their own. After
this, drivers practice with
buggies loaded with sand-
bags to get used to driving
with the realistic weight of a
passenger load before actu-
ally taking any visitors out
on the dunes.
Sandland also has to
consider paying their staff
during the offseason.
“The problem we have in
these small tourist towns
up and down the coast is we
have such a narrow window
to make it,” said Darla. “You
do really well, but for only
two or three months, and
that money has to carry us
through the winter, because
we try to keep our drivers
on year-round.
“That extra money we
make in the summer is
what we use to pay our guys
through the winter so we
know we have experienced
drivers come the next sea-
son. It’s difficult, and once
you’ve missed a season, it’s
tough.”
Still, Chris and Darla rec-
ognize that they have been
fortunate compared to oth-
er businesses in town.
“We feel blessed,” said
Darla. “Even last year, we
did about half of what we
normally did, but at least
we were able to do it. A lot
of the restaurants and little
shops weren’t able to stay
open.”
Above all, the Hagues
recognize the importance
of every business in town’s
success contributing to
Florence thriving on the
whole.
“We’ve always tried to
run our business the best
we can to give people a
great experience, so they
keep coming back, because
once we get them here,
they’re going to eat in the
restaurants, they’re going
to stay in our hotels, they’re
going to do the other activ-
ities in the area,” said Darla.
“So, if any one attraction
that’s in the area — whether
it be the Sea Lion Caves, the
lighthouse, C&M Stables,
the Sandboarding Park
— can bring people to the
area, then everybody ben-
efits. So, that’s really what
we’ve always tried to do.”
For more information,
visit www.sandland.com.
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