Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park

Saskatchewan Provincial Wilderness Park Of Nearly 2,000 Square Kilometres Protecting The Most Northerly Major Active Sand Dunes On Earth And Around Ten Endemic Plant Species · Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan

Nobody expects a desert at fifty-nine degrees north, which is roughly the latitude of Juneau, and yet along a hundred kilometres of the south shore of Lake Athabasca there are open dunes standing up to thirty metres high - the most northerly major active sand dunes on earth. They are what glacial Lake Athabasca left behind when it drained about eight thousand years ago, and the wind has been moving them ever since, burying spruce forest at one edge and uncovering it at the other. What makes the place scientifically extraordinary rather than merely strange is what grows on it: around fifty rare plant species, of which roughly ten are endemic, meaning they exist here and nowhere else in the world. There is no road. There are no trails, no campsites, no drinking water and no cell coverage. You arrive by chartered float plane, and everything you need arrives with you.

South shore of Lake Athabasca, far northern Saskatchewan, Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan, Canada

Open year round in principle and visited only in high summer in practice - roughly LATE JUNE TO LATE AUGUST, when Lake Athabasca is ice-free and float planes can land. THERE IS NO ROAD, NO GATE, NO STAFF ON SITE, NO TRAILS, NO CAMPSITES, NO DRINKING WATER AND NO CELL COVERAGE. Access is by chartered float plane from Fort McMurray, Points North or Stony Rapids, or by boat across a large and dangerous lake. CHARTERS ARE WEATHER-DEPENDENT IN BOTH DIRECTIONS - plan for being stranded and carry spare food. Backcountry registration with Saskatchewan Parks is expected; confirm current requirements.

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