Preserving Athabasca's sand dunes

Preparing to land, the pilot informs his passengers that he has saved the most important message for last. On August 24, 1992, 475,677 acres of the Athabasca Sand Dunes were designated a “provincial wilderness park” in order to preserve the dune fields, along with the rivers, lakes and forests that stretch along the south shore of Lake Athabasca. It is extremely important for those who visit to read the Saskatchewan Environment Information Booklet that provides an overview of the sand dunes and explains park regulations. The majority of the regulations are common-sense rules, such as not walking on or disturbing the desert pavement, not uprooting or collecting any plants, artifacts or ventifacts and making sure to remove all garbage. Visitors need to be prepared to protect the fragile environment and are encouraged to follow the rules and pay attention to the park zoning.

Once the plane lands in Cantara Lake, near Beaver Point on the eastern edge of Thompson Bay, the pilot lets out a sigh of relief and tells his passengers he is glad to be landing here instead of Lake Athabasca because of the weather, which typically makes for an unpleasantly rough landing. He always makes sure to stress the importance of preserving the Athabasca Sand Dunes, and since he has done so already, he begins to talk about the canoe journeys available, and continues to share his experience about canoeing both the William and MacFarlane Rivers. Knowing that his passengers are going to be embarking on a canoe journey, he explains that the William River provides a challenging, wild whitewater canoe adventure that passes through Athabasca's largest dune field, and the Macfarlane River provides an equally exciting, yet all together different adventure that highlights three dramatic waterfalls. The pilot continues to tell of various adventures that he has experienced over the years, and as he speaks the passengers are bursting with excitement, ready to get off of the plane and begin their own.

As the passengers disembark, they thank the pilot for the wonderful experiences of the flight and say they really enjoyed all of his keen knowledge and insight. The pilot smiles and explains that he loves setting the scene for such an exciting place by letting his passengers know that the sand dunes of Athabasca are alive and full of adventure, fun, magic and mystery. Knowing that they are going to be camping in one of the designated areas, the pilot suggests that they quickly set up camp so that they can take the short trail from camp to the shore of Lake Athabasca, walk along the beach and catch their first mystical Athabasca sunset.