The paved road into the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve rests on one of the finest and most extensive coastal dune systems in the world. When we arrived at the beachside parking area, a small crew of county parks employees was clearing the sand that had blown in the previous afternoon. Happy to take a break from his endless sweeping, a park ranger stopped to teach us about the Preserve. Leaning on a push broom, he pointed to the«Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille», up on the dunes. Here, DeMille constructed the largest set in movie history for the filming of his 1923 epic«The Ten Commandments». Following the film shoot, DeMille buried in the sand over 1 million pounds of massive Egyptian statuary, including 4, 40-ton statues of Pharaoh Ramses II and a dozen 5-ton sphinxes. The ranger prohibited us from climbing up to the Lost City, since the endangered western snowy plovers were nesting. Instead, he urged us to walk down the beach, to watch the snowy plovers scamper along the dunes. At the south end of the beach, dripping springs of fresh water flowed from the base of Mussel Rock Dune, where cattails and other vegetation flourished. At 450 feet, Mussel Rock Dune is the tallest on the west coast. When the afternoon winds began to gust, we returned to the car. Back in the parking lot, our pal and his mates were now operating a street-sweeper and a tractor. Big guns in the perpetual fight against the blowing sands of the Guadalupe Dunes
