I say stay in the tracks. The sand is allready compacted somewhat and you should get better gas mileage.

If you want to have fun get up a little speed, kick it in to 2WD and hit the soft stuf..... GM, how 'bouta 3 speed transfer case?

 

There is a lot of sand over here as you probably gathered, so thats what 90% of our offroading entails in this part of the world
I usually deflate the tyres anything between 14 to 18 psi depending on the sand expected, whether its soft powder or grainier more stablestuff although owing to the weight of the car care has to be taken not to pop a tyre off the rim at lower pressures.
If you are just beach driving, theres nothing wrong sticking to the tracks of others, but its not much fun compared to finding your own way. Momentum is the key on sand, maintaining a steady pace and getting to know when and when not to hit the gas is something you can only learn with experience. Where to stop is something to think about, as we have dunes we tend to try and stop the car on a slope, easy when there's plenty of dunes but on largely flat sand such as a beach dont stop in the soft dry sand otherwise when you come to restart you will probably get bogged down. So look for the wetter areas that are firm but stay away from the tides, if you get stuck with an active tide around the wheels your car wil get sucked into the sand real quick and it will take more than another SUV to recover you.

We havegreat desert areasover here, some dunes topping 750ftand as the desert is largely unpopulated there are very few tracks to follow, we just make our own and try not to get swallowed up in some of these giant bowls that catch you out at times when in unknown areas.

Driving on sand is addictive, I think you have probably caught the bug already, getting stuck is part of the fun and you willlearn from each stuck what to avoid doing next time to keep moving

Most of all have fun and enjoy.

 

and the only thing I have to add to all of this... if you stop...and you will...

Back up a foot or so... and then start moving forward.

 

Here down Cape Cod on the National Seashore, they make you drive in the grooved trail to avoid more erosion, (the Cape is shrinking quickly from major storms). In most places there is only 1 set of tracks for on or off the beach and if another truck is leaving the beach he has the right away & you have to get on to the open sand to allow the them to do so.
The best driving results are to deflate tire pressure down between 14 - 18 psi which they require, I usually go down lower to about 10 psi, it allows you to "float" easier over softer sand.


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