Experience a bird’s-eye view of the St. Anthony Sand Dunes

FREMONT COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) - You can get a bird's-eye view of the St. Anthony Sand Dunes.

Idaho's Dune RV, an RV campground near St. Anthony, is now offering helicopter tours. It's an opportunity for visitors to get a different look at the famous sand dunes.

Tours range from 15-20 minutes and can be focused more on the dunes or take you to surrounding areas.

"Our 15 minute one is kind of get you get 360 around the sand dunes over the lake. Then we have a 30 minute tour that takes you up towards Island Park and the ponds, Sand Creek ponds and wraps you again to the civil defense caves. We hover in where you can look right down into the caves and then up to the junipers and then back again around the sand dunes," tour pilot Garrett McGroarty said. "And then we have a 20 minute sunset flight that goes at once a day. Golden hour. It's beautiful in the sky. The sand dunes are all golden. And that's a 20 minute and two way more dynamic time type of flying. And we kind of circle the outskirts of the sand dunes and that's been a super popular one."

The tours started as part of the 2023 camping season at Idaho's Dune RV. The tours have been a big hit already.

"We just got maintenance done on it today. We just had our 50 hour. I've flown about 200 people in the past month and just dozens and dozens of flight every single week. So it's been way more popular than we ever expected," McGroarty said.

McGroarty says he feels he is a pretty lucky pilot to show people the dunes from above.

"I'm a very lucky pilot to be able to fly over the biggest sand dunes in the country and be able to do it all day long and see people riding their sand cars and side by side. There's a lot of pilots just kind of fly over trees and farm fields for their life. But I'm just super fortunate to be able to do what I do."

Many who go on the tours are first time helicopter flyers, McGroarty said.

"They love it. You know, a lot of people come in. I would say 90% of the people I've taken up have been first time in the helicopter. And so that puts a smile on my face because I get to set the standard for them and, you know, people are always a little eerie at first, you know, if they're going to get sick. But it's been super smooth. It's such a smooth ride, especially with the new helicopter, and it exceeds people's expectations every day."

For more on the tours, you can go here.