It is February in snow country, and we are attuned to visiting the beach. We don't give much consideration to relaxing at a desert oasis. It has never occurred to me to wonder about an oasis - a little area of lush vegetation surrounded by desert.
But now that I consider it, this contrast creates a 'mystical hold' on the imagination. The pictures of the most beautiful oases in the world are compelling, but not the countries in the middle east that they are located in.
We could travel to oases in the U.S. But did you know that there is a "desert" in Canada? The "Okanagan Desert" is a semi-arid region home to hundreds of plant and animal species unique to the area. Being semi-arid, it is actually a shrub steppe and not a desert. The places of least rain include Ashcoft arid at 8 inches a year, and Kamloops, OSOYOOS (12.7 inches a year so semi-arid. The chart continues with two more categories - "Dry, but not semi-arid", and finally "Wet" (Vancouver of course).
But these are not true deserts according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. There is a sandy expanse south of Lake Athabasca. It is considered an "Aeolian environmental aberration" - it sounds like an insult that would come from Oscar Wilde. Botanically, it is a desert because groundwater is too deep to support plant life. Large sand dunes are the resulting landscape.
There are areas in the Canadian Arctic that have desert-like appearances and parts of the prairies in southwestern Saskatchewan creating semiarid landscapes.
Back to our closest thing to a desert oasis. It is OSOYOOS - often Canada's hottest spot in the summer - above 38C. There are irrigation-fed orchards and vineyards. There is an annual Cherry Festival on July 1st. Well-known Inniskillin Wineries grow grapes in the region - the area has over 200 frost-free days a year - well in excess of the 165 days needed.
We've visited a great desert landscape: today's picture comes from our visit to Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado - 30 square miles of sand. There was no relaxing at the sand dunes - it is hard labour walking through sand. It was way too hot and the sun was blinding with reflections. It was hard to figure out the horizon. We took ourselves back to the mountain railroads.
