The Prairies - wide open spaces

A friend of David’s recommended we stop at Grasslands National Park.  It was quite a ways off the beaten path, so to speak, but it gave us a good feel for the vastness of the prairie province of Saskatchewan.  It was a striking contrast to the high mountains and clear blue/green waters we saw the past few days.  The prairies offer a different kind of beauty... swaying grasses, wide open spaces and colorful sunsets.

Surprisingly enough, it felt a bit like Texas, especially when we checked in.  The park attendant made a special point to mention that the prickly pear cactus was blooming and to be aware of rattlesnakes.  Luckily - I have no rattlesnake sightings to report!  

This park is home to the largest natural habitat of prairie dogs.  They were everywhere!  They are so cute to watch. They dart around, in and out of their little (and sometimes big) holes.  As you scan the landscape, you can spot at least 20-30 of them scampering around at the same time.  

A campground has a much different feel when there are no trees, only shrubs, separating the campsites.  This campground was quite small, with only about 15 sites being occupied.  Lots of folks were out walking their dogs and everyone was very friendly.  

This park also maintains a large bison population.

We took advantage of a program where we were able to see where they monitor and keep track of all the bison here.  When they need to trim the herds, they coordinate with other parks to relocate the bison. Another Texas reference - the tour guide mentioned Charlie Goodnight, from Caprock Canyon, where we have also been.  We lucked out and saw several bison the next morning as we headed out of the park. 

We also saw more deer and even encountered a huge herd of cattle - lots of them with calves, coming down the road... straight towards us. We weren’t sure if they had accidentally gotten out, but eventually we saw 2 men driving them.  Not sure why they were driving them down the road like that - we’ve never seen that done in Texas.  It slowed us down a bit, but was an interesting sight to see.

On to Manitoba!  This time crossing Manitoba we had an extra day to stop and explore.  We spent the whole time in Winnipeg.  We drove through a very charming part of town on our way to Assiniboine Park. We took our time wandering through the Leo Mol sculpture garden.  It also encompasses a lovely English Garden, with tons of varieties of flowers.  David took so many pictures we could make a whole posting of just those.

We happened to be here on National Indigenous Peoples Day so we went to The Forks National Heritage site where we saw musical performances, a comedienne, and watched a pow wow competition. The competition was fascinating - based on both costumes and dancing as well as drumming and singing. Very official judges with clipboards were taking notes throughout the performances.

We walked through a lot of craft booths and tasted some homemade fried bannock, which is a variety of round Indian bread frequently made by the Inuit and the Métis.   

Next we decided to spend some time in the Museum of Human Rights.  We saw a well structured, interactive display depicting the history of Nelson Mandela and his struggle for the rights of South Africans.  This museum had a lot more to offer but, we only had time to see a small part of it. We left the downtown Manitoba area and drove to another RV resort for the night. We had several people stop by and ask about our little red RV.  It certainly does stand out, which is actually kind of fun.

The next section of the trip involves a lot of driving - but be sure to check back and see all the interesting stops along the way back to Montréal!