Every region seems to have its unique Easter traditions, and Moses Lake is no exception.

For 10 years, the Easter Bunny has made an appearance at the Moses Lake Mud Flats and Sand Dunes a day before the typical Sunday celebrations.

Sand Scorpions ORV Group leader Rich Archer launched the annual egg hunt around 2011. The group was already doing it in their respective yards, he said, so why not out in the dunes? From then, it’s only grown.

Saturday morning, more than 100 families pressed to the fenceline on the east end of the sand dunes, hardly containing their excitement over the 20,000 eggs, toys and games spread across eight acres of shrub-steppe and sandy hills.

The Easter Bunny and her friend, the Easter Duck, made their rounds with the excited children, waving and giving hugs.

As Archer made an announcement to the crowd, every kid must have been listening intently for the word “go.”

“Try not to hurt anybody,” he said instead. “I want everything picked up.”

And then, the word finally came. The stampede of children stormed across the dunes, stuffing baskets with as many eggs – sitting in soft sand or entangled in sagebrush – as they could.

One thing was different about this year, Archer said. The Lioness Club of Moses Lake, a women’s nonprofit organization, stuffed one egg with a certificate to claim $100.

They call it the “golden egg,” said Peny Archer of the Sand Scorpions, but in truth it’s indistinguishable from the rest. It could be anywhere.

Within 30 minutes, the egg-speckled landscape was bald again. Children had sifted the sand of plastic and chocolate, resulting in plenty of eggs for each to rifle through for the prize.

But the event didn’t end there. Immediately following the kids’ fun came fun for the adults.

Die-hard Scorpions met for a poker run, an intense ride through the dunes with five stops, Archer said. Each rider put in $5 to play and at each stop, riders were assigned a poker hand through an app. At the end of the run, the winner of the five hands received the pot.

“Everybody has a lot of fun coming out here and doing this stuff,” Archer said.

And will for years to come, he added.