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Comment by cjensen | Hacker News Reader

They call it a "desert" because there are sand dunes, not because it is actually a desert[1]. Receives more rain than the Silicon Valley.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcross_Desert

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It's covered in the article. It does fall into the classification of a semi-arid desert.

Huh. Mere presence of sand dunes isn't an indication of any sort of "desertness", at least at this scale. Michigan has several sand dunes, and it isn't even remotely a desert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Lake_State_Park_(Michig... That one is according to Wikipedia over 2000 acres of sand dunes, which is over 3 square miles, which is quite a bit bigger than the Carcross "Desert".

There are places in that park where you can stand and see nothing but sand. Well, sand and lots of dune buggies. But, still.

Presumably a colloquial name, or there's something else to it.

> which is over 3 square miles, which is quite a bit bigger than the Carcross "Desert".

Carcross‘s notability is in being the smallest, not largest.

> or there's something else to it.

Anyway, yes—whether something is a desert is determined by amount of yearly precipitation.

Where did you get the precipitation data for those places, because the wikipedia pages for the two areas show that Carcoss[0] gets a bit less than Palo Alto[1] for example. 11 inches vs 16 inches respectively.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcross_Desert

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Alto,_California

The wikipedia page for Carcross Desert says 50cm. That's almost 20 in.

It says receiving less than which is not 50cm. Further, semi arid desert is defined as less than 50cm. Really Palo Alto like much of California is semi arid, just look at the native plant life. Check out the map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-arid_climate vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_climate

Same situation with most of our "high desert" here in Oregon, which is probably best described as "steppe" outside of a few small areas like the Alvord desert.

There are some dunes here, too, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Valley_Sand_Dunes

If you haven't been to the Alvord desert you should. It's amazing. Looking up at steens from the playa.

I've only ever made it to the summit of Steens. I want so, so badly to travel around, since we're not even that far away here in Bend, but ... vacation time is limited.

Nice. I wish I lived in Bend! So much amazing country to see out there. The Peter French round barn and diamond craters are also worth a stop if you are in the area.

The coastal dunes are also not especially dry.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Dunes_National_Recrea...

In France there's the Dune of Pilat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_of_Pilat). It's really nice to visit. 110 meters high, right next to the coast. It's just one giant dune though :)

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