“You have a desert in the Yukon?”
I have heard this question over and over again since moving to Whitehorse, seven years ago. I was surprised, too, but it has quickly become a favourite destination of mine, especially for travels with loved ones when they come to visit.
My earliest memory of the Carcross Desert is of my first winter in the Yukon. My husband and I were invited to join some friends on the sand dunes for some sledding adventures, and it quickly became an unforgettable experience. Using snowmobiles, we pulled the sleds up to the very top of the highest dune, and I recall my excited yelp as we raced down the hill, surrounded by the breathtaking mountain ranges that encircled us.
I remember looking around and thinking how lucky I was to live in a place where this kind of surreal experience was only 40 minutes away from home. And for someone who had been experiencing a great deal of homesickness at that point, this time in the desert certainly added to the plentitude of reasons to make a new home for myself in this incredible territory.
Since then, it has provided many memories for my family and me … the most-embarrassing one being when my husband and I were showing it off to my sister and brother-in-law on their trip up from Ontario. We had just had the most-wonderful time climbing the dunes and enjoying the sunshine when, suddenly, I stepped in something that was most certainly not sand.
Now, it has been debated how whiney my reaction was at the time, but I was understandably upset to find that, in the entire stretch of sandy landscapes, my foot had found the single piece of dog droppings in the entire place. My family got quite the laugh out of it, at my expense, but I chose not to blame the location for the unfortunate incident.
This past Mother’s Day provided the perfect opportunity to further brush aside this not-so-fond memory and to make a more-pleasant one. I finally got the chance to share this place that means a lot to me—with my son. Having finally recovered from an ongoing parade of illnesses in our household, it was a treat to get outside and enjoy a weekend of family fun. And what kid wasn’t going to love a sea of sand to play in? After all, my little guy had never had the experience of walking barefoot in the sand. We knew he was going to just love it.
And, we were right.
The moment my child realized that he could walk around with his shoes off, the excitement permeated off of him like a laser beam. He squealed with happiness and my husband and I were delighted to watch him pause (and this kid never pauses) to look down as his feet disappeared under the sand. “Where did my feet go?” he asked, his voice a mixture of astonishment and slight concern. “Where did Daddy’s feet go?” he added when he noticed the same thing had happened to his father.
He was enamoured. And, while we did eventually make it to the top of the massive sand dune, we were entertained by the continuous breaks that our son was choosing to take after every 10 steps or so. Whether it was to sit in the sand and run his hands through it, or to let himself collapse onto the golden granules at his feet, Little Buddy was enjoying every single moment of it.
So we let him take his time, knowing full well that this experience would not only provide pure joy for him but would also help to ensure that he would sleep very well that night. These days it is difficult to run this boy out of energy. He has an endless supply that demands opportunities to exhaust it. Yet, I still found myself surprised by the fact that he was able to run all the way up and back down the dunes without getting tired.
Although, to be fair, he did eventually ask to be carried, once we got to a small section of sand that was littered with small, sharp twigs that began to hurt his feet.
“I want to go back,” he insisted on our drive back home that day.
I smiled, knowing that this magical place had captured the heart of my son on his first visit (just as it had done to mine, seven years before). It really goes to show that Carcross Desert is an important part of what makes the Yukon so special to so many of us. Whether it provides the optimal place for sledding adventures or an endless expanse of sandbox play for the little ones, this place is a true gem that I am grateful to have on my doorstep.
“We’ll definitely come back,” I assured my son with a cuddle, “and next time, we’ll bring sand toys!”
