Maps and access
Two ways in.
Download before you go.
Glamis is reached from Highway 78 east of Brawley, California, or from Interstate 8 west of Yuma, Arizona. Which one you use is usually decided by where you are towing from, and increasingly by which side of the state line you want to buy fuel on.
Getting there
The two approaches
| Approach | Route | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| From the west | Highway 78, east of Brawley | The California side. Brawley and El Centro are the supply towns. |
| From the east | Interstate 8, west of Yuma | The Arizona side. Yuma fuel is usually materially cheaper. |
Both are published by BLM as the primary access. Compare live fuel prices on each side →
Before you lose signal
Download it
while you still can.
Assume no coverage
Do not plan on having a working connection out on the sand. Whatever map you intend to rely on, have it stored on the device before you leave the highway.
Carry the official map
BLM publishes the recreation area map showing boundaries and access. That is the one that governs where you may legally ride, whatever any other app shows.
Know your access road
Remember which road you came in on. It is the first question anyone coming to help will ask, and on open sand it is easy to lose track of which direction the highway is.
A map is not a plan
Forty miles of dunes with few reference points defeats casual navigation. Tell people at camp roughly where you are going and when you expect to be back.
The boundary that matters
North Algodones
is closed to vehicles.
The North Algodones Dunes Wilderness is closed to all vehicles and mechanized use. It is permanent and it covers a significant part of the dune system. Any route planning has to account for it, and no permit provides an exception.
Temporary closures also happen, and they change with little warning. Osborne Overlook was closed through the end of July 2026 for parking improvements, which is the kind of notice that appears and disappears between trips. Check blm.gov or call the El Centro Field Office on (760) 337-4400 before you travel rather than trusting any date printed here.
The map
Satellite view,
official coordinates.
Every point on this map uses coordinates published by BLM for that site, not a pin dropped by eye on a satellite image. Tap a marker for what is there and the coordinates it came from, or pick one from the list to fly straight to it.
Imagery from Esri. Boundaries are BLM's own Open and Limited OHV geometry, not traced from the imagery. Scroll-wheel zoom switches on once you click the map, so the page still scrolls normally on a phone.
All 40 locations, as a list
Being straight with you
What the map
does not show yet.
Everything pinned here comes from BLM's published coordinate table: 25 camps and staging areas, the seven numbered hills, both ranger stations, the Plank Road and the rest. The Open and Limited boundaries are BLM's own GIS geometry rather than lines drawn over a satellite image. Each pin shows its source and the date it was checked.
What is still missing is the rider vocabulary that BLM does not publish coordinates for. Vendor Row is the obvious one, along with the wash names that do not appear in the official table. Those go on when someone who rides here can place them, with a name against the verification, and not before. A named place pinned in the wrong spot is worse than no pin at all.
Take the official map with you as well. It is built for offline GPS use, which matters in a place where coverage is unreliable.