Great Sand Hills

 desert, dunes

The Great Sand Hills lie just south of the South Saskatchewan River and just east of the Alberta border. They cover about 1,900 square kilometres (750 square miles) of sand dunes grasslands, short hills, saline lakes, pebble plains, cotton wood groves and aspen bluffs. Individual dunes rise to more than 15 metres (50 feet), second in Canada only to the Athabasca Sand Dunes in the far north of Saskatchewan. Most of the Great Sand Hills landscape has been settled and utilized for ranching over the last hundred years, but the majority of land remains in provincial ownership.

The northwest corner of the Sand Hills is the most easily accessible. Driving south from the town of Sceptre is the easiest way into the area.