It is unusual to see private homes built right on the sand of the Pacific Ocean, in California. As is the one in which we are staying.

It is even more unusual to sit inside that home and watch hundreds of recreational vehicles roll past on their way to the Ocean Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (photo courtesy Scott Cook).

The park begins about a mile south of where we are staying, and which we have dubbed the Max Max Encampment, inspired particularly by Mad Max 2, the post-apocalyptic movie from 1981, starring Mel Gibson, which features settlements encircled by large motor vehicles.

That’s the Oceano Dunes.

I actually like the idea of a place set aside for hobbyists to break out their ATVs and get busy in the dunes.

Everyone in the ATV community knows you can come to Oceano Dunes — named after the small town closest to the area — and buzz around in the dunes between the ocean breakers and firm ground.

Actually, it is the only state park in California in which riding ATVs is legal, and we see the haulers of the firms who will rent you an ATV ferrying their little machines back to the state park at all hours of the day.

The main entrance to the park is from Pier Street in Grover Beach, just north of where a small batch of houses, including this one, stand.

The vehicles, ranging from big pickups to haulers to motorhomes, make for a steady parade in front of the house, moving along on the edge of the moist sand, which rarely snares the vehicles — especially after they have lowered the air pressure in their tires to about 20 pounds per square inch. It is the sand version of Highway 1.

From what we can see, from walking down to the edge of the state park, is lots of families with kids. Most of them seem to spend their time just taking it easy around their motorhomes, watching the ocean, delighting in the cool, onshore breeze. They also can surf and fish or swim.

But the sight of all that metal — the monetary of all those vehicles has to be in the hundreds of millions — is vaguely intimidating.

And it reminds us of the Mad Max movies.

If someone shows up in a Mohawk haircut … well, we may call on Mel Gibson for help. Or to film another movie; the vehicles already are in place.