"Where are you going for vacation?"
"South Saskatchewan."
"Oh, you have relatives there?"
"No."
"Then why would you go there?
"Because it's so beautiful…"
You can't imagine how many times one of us has had that conversation with a Ponoka local. We discovered some years ago that this is an overlooked province when it comes to beauty and to vacation enjoyment. This is the fourth summer in less than a decade that we have spent one or tree weeks in Saskatchewan south of the Trans-Canada highway. This time it's Val Marie and the Grasslands National Park.
We are staying in a spectacular B&B, a fully equipped cottage, solar and wind powered. Great bed, hot shower, movies and books, and an overwhelming, light-free dark night sky. Our hosts live nearby in a converted Church (pun intended), also solar and wind powered, and beautifully finished, like out cottage.
The nearby park affords a unique experience of hills, bluff, draws and rocky crags rising up from the flat land all along the Frenchman's River. For miles, the valley wends its variegated way along the land. As the hills and valleys unfold under your feet, you may see black footed ferrets, prairie dogs, badgers, rattlesnakes(!) and free roaming bison munching their way across the landscape. Mule deer are everywhere, and down on the prairie, pronghorn antelopes scoot along.
Yesterday, we passed by an eagles nest (no eagles visible), and had to proceed carefully down one road to avoid startling the grazing bison. A two-hour climb (moderately difficult) gave us a view of miles of the valley and prairie in all directions, as we stood among tipi rings laid down over a thousand years ago by aboriginal people seeking the high land to catch the wind, avoid the bugs, and watch for game…and enemies, I imagine.
Arriving at the trail head yesterday, we met a woman, nut brown and western-ly dressed, who was crossing prairies on horseback. She had just broken camp, and was loading her packhorse for the day's journey. Later in the day, we met her in town and shared a coffee table with her. Summers on horseback in Canada, winters with her retired mother in Thailand. A contemporary version of the drifter, seeking a place to settle to pursue her music more regularly. (see fiain-skuld.blogspot.com)
Who was it said Saskatchewan is boring?
Over coffee in Val Marie (home of Brian Trottier, of New York Islander fame), we met Asian tourists, flitting through with their camera, hunting knife toting hippies, complete with waist length dreads, two pencil thin women from California who were driving and biking slowly all the way to Philadelphia. All for the price of a $3.00 latte! The town sports a surprisingly good art gallery of local art, a very good prairie bookstore dealing in animal and human history of the area, and a passable museum! A new venture on the main street is the Harvest Moon Cafe - actually a restaurant which serves extremely good food in a simple and friendly atmosphere. And it's quiet on the street. Quiet. Peaceful. Is there more that I could want for vacation?
Next time: the hikes and the topography.
"South Saskatchewan."
"Oh, you have relatives there?"
"No."
"Then why would you go there?
"Because it's so beautiful…"
You can't imagine how many times one of us has had that conversation with a Ponoka local. We discovered some years ago that this is an overlooked province when it comes to beauty and to vacation enjoyment. This is the fourth summer in less than a decade that we have spent one or tree weeks in Saskatchewan south of the Trans-Canada highway. This time it's Val Marie and the Grasslands National Park.
We are staying in a spectacular B&B, a fully equipped cottage, solar and wind powered. Great bed, hot shower, movies and books, and an overwhelming, light-free dark night sky. Our hosts live nearby in a converted Church (pun intended), also solar and wind powered, and beautifully finished, like out cottage.
The nearby park affords a unique experience of hills, bluff, draws and rocky crags rising up from the flat land all along the Frenchman's River. For miles, the valley wends its variegated way along the land. As the hills and valleys unfold under your feet, you may see black footed ferrets, prairie dogs, badgers, rattlesnakes(!) and free roaming bison munching their way across the landscape. Mule deer are everywhere, and down on the prairie, pronghorn antelopes scoot along.
Yesterday, we passed by an eagles nest (no eagles visible), and had to proceed carefully down one road to avoid startling the grazing bison. A two-hour climb (moderately difficult) gave us a view of miles of the valley and prairie in all directions, as we stood among tipi rings laid down over a thousand years ago by aboriginal people seeking the high land to catch the wind, avoid the bugs, and watch for game…and enemies, I imagine.
Arriving at the trail head yesterday, we met a woman, nut brown and western-ly dressed, who was crossing prairies on horseback. She had just broken camp, and was loading her packhorse for the day's journey. Later in the day, we met her in town and shared a coffee table with her. Summers on horseback in Canada, winters with her retired mother in Thailand. A contemporary version of the drifter, seeking a place to settle to pursue her music more regularly. (see fiain-skuld.blogspot.com)
Who was it said Saskatchewan is boring?
Over coffee in Val Marie (home of Brian Trottier, of New York Islander fame), we met Asian tourists, flitting through with their camera, hunting knife toting hippies, complete with waist length dreads, two pencil thin women from California who were driving and biking slowly all the way to Philadelphia. All for the price of a $3.00 latte! The town sports a surprisingly good art gallery of local art, a very good prairie bookstore dealing in animal and human history of the area, and a passable museum! A new venture on the main street is the Harvest Moon Cafe - actually a restaurant which serves extremely good food in a simple and friendly atmosphere. And it's quiet on the street. Quiet. Peaceful. Is there more that I could want for vacation?
Next time: the hikes and the topography.
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