The Great Sandhills

The Great Sandhills are not the easiest of places to find looking at a standard roadmap, but we were persistent and got a local map at the information centre. We approached it from the south, so travelled along gravel roads past fields and through grazing leases, when the road suddenly turned to sand! It was like driving on a beach – fine beautiful sand. It rather took us by surprise. As we rounded a bend we saw the sand dunes which are quite tall. There is a small parking lot, so we stopped and wandered around for awhile, looking at the dunes and vegetation. The dunes look like piles of sand in a prairie field, but then we realized everything is growing in sand and it stretches for a long ways – covering 1,900 square kilometres.

The walking trail.

Someone found a creative use for old cowboy boots.

Everything is growing in sand.

They are taller than they first appear – about 20 m high according to the signs.

Footprints in the sand… but not human!

the road!

One of the dunes as seen from the parking lot.

We drove north to Sceptre to check out the museum. They have a really good collection buildings and artifacts used when settlers arrived in the Sandhills area.

A badger-catcher! That is a new one for me!