Glasslands National Park

Grasslands National Park is home to one of the largest remaining intact section of mixed-grass prairie in Canada.  More than “just grass”, this ecosystem is home to a wide variety of plants and animals, including some that are found nowhere else in Canada.  The park also plays a role in promoting the respect and protection of cultural resources as it is home to over 12,00 teepee rings and over 3,000 pre-contact cultural resources such as lithic scatter, Cairns and bison drivelanes.

I was warned that it would be windy here, but I must have lucked out because it was a calm day.

Standing on Top of the World, because we are overlooking one of the Northern-most Black-tailed Prairie Dog colonies left in Canada. Grasslands National Park is the only place in the country where prairie dogs still exist in their natural habitat.  Can you see any of them standing on their hind legs outside of the mounds?  I wish I could have recorded their “barking.”  There were thousands of them!

The park has two geographic locations.  West Block (above pictures) and the East Block (the badlands). 

A picture of the wonderful road I had to drive

I don’t have any pictures of the East Block and here is the story:  The parks are about 35 miles apart on Hwy 18.  When I came out of the West Block, I turned on Hwy 18 going west.  I should be going east, but everything I pulled over to check my GPS, it said I was going the correct way.  NOT.  I ended up driving about 4 hours out of my way on some of the worst highways I have ever been on and nearly running out of diesel.  When I finally got as close as Wood Mountain, I pulled into a campground and called it done.  The next day I drove my Jeep over to the East Block (again the GPS was wonky – and it was a different GPS.  Apparently, according to the ranger, this is common).  Anyway, the Badland Highway through the East Block was closed for reseeding.  After all of that – closed.

I was able to “limp” another 20 miles in the coach to the town of Limerick for diesel on my way to Moose Jaw.

The road crews "through" tar all over the roads trying to keep them together, so, unfortunately, I now have tar all over my coach and Jeep.  What a mess!

Sometimes I just have bad luck with my sightseeing.  I drove 50 miles to the St. Vincent Petroglyphs Provincial Park and it was closed!  The ranger at Grasslands NP gave me the directions, so why didn't she tell me it was closed?

I will give the Rangers at all the various parks, Provincial, National, Regional, the vote for the nicest Rangers I have encountered.

The bad road award goes here as well.

I talked to the Wood Mountain Regional Park caretaker for quite a while when I was getting ready to leave.  One of the tidbits he passed along was the unofficial slogan of Regina (remember I said earlier that the "i" is long?):  Regina, it rhymes with fun.

Another tidbit was in response to my mention of the tar on my vehicles.  His response: but you never have to undercoat your car.

Starting my stay in Saskatchewan

Although I didn't plan my first stop to be Saskatoon, I needed to find an RV dealer and a glass repair.  Just before crossing the border from Montana I "took" a rock at the very edge of my windshield, which sent two cracks upward and over.  Eventually, one reached the top of the windshield.  I'm still waiting to see who can make the replacement.  Everyone I called needed weeks to order one.

While I was parked for the night, I took a walk around the coach and discovered my slide cover had a rip (I was concerned that it would get caught in the slide when I brought it in).  I found an RV dealer in town but they have to order the fabric, so I have to come back in a week or so.

Sights from the road so far

I had an interesting border crossing this time (again).  It was a "double" crossing 😀; once on the US side and again on the Canadian side.  The US Border Patrol came into my coach to search for hitchhikers.  He looked into my pantry, but not into the closet or beside the bed, which would have been a great place to hide a body.  Strange.

On the Canadian side, they just wanted to know how long I was staying.  No questions regarding meat or produce or residence.  They did ask about weapons, however.

In the late 1800s, Batoche was a settlement of Metis -- descendants of European fur traders and First Nations people -- and the site of a decisive battle between the Metis and Canadian forces. Included in the National Historic Site are a visitor center, audiovisual presentations, and a church rectory with bullet holes visible above the doorway.




 








The Tepee is Medicine Hat's most visible landmark and is a tribute to Canada's native heritage. It's built entirely of steel and is ringed with ten large circular story-boards depicting native culture and history.

The first place I'm staying is Pasquia Regional Park, home to Big Bert, a 19 ft ancestor of the modern crocodile that hunted its prey when Saskatchewan was an inland sea.  About 6 miles away is Carrot River, named after the wild carrots that grow along the river banks.



After the holiday weekend, Victoria Day, which is this weekend, I'll head for Prince Albert National Park, "PA" to those of us in the know. 😎

Sun with temps in the high 50s.  Bad roads and way too many are dirt/gravel; most of yesterday was spent on some of the worse roads my coach has driven upon (even worse than Alaska!).

I learned that Saskatchewan as a Provence leads Canada in most violent crime and four of the cities I'm to visit are 1-2-3-4 on the list.  The statistics are based on per capita, so it's not as bad as it sounds.  Would I have come if I'd known that?

Saskatchewan at a glance

The name "Saskatchewan" comes from the indigenous work "kisiskatchewan" - meaning the river that flows swiftly.

The capital city is Regina (pronounced with a long "i" I found out).  The largest city is Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan covers 651,900 sq. km - one half of the province is covered by forest, one third is farmland and one eighth is freshwater. So far all I've seen is the farmland!

Saskatchewan is located in the heart of North American, neighboring the provinces of Manitoba and Alberta.  To the south, it borders Montana and North Dakota.  To the north is the Northwest Territories.

The Cypress Hills reach 1,392 m above sea level, the province's highest elevation point.

Saskatchewan's principal export industries are mining, oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.

Saskatchewan is home to Canada's only training academy for Royal Canadian Mounted Policy recruits, in Regina.

The T.rex skeleton, excavated near Eastern in 1994-95, is one of only 12 such discoveries in the world.

The Athabasca Sand Dunes are the most northerly major sand dunes in the world, and among the largest in North America.

Canada is the world's largest exporter of lentils, dry peas, mustard, flaxseed and canola.

Saskatchewan is the world's chief source of uranium and potash and has one of the world's largest kimberlite fields.

Leaving Montana

Butte is an interesting town.  The streets are very narrow and the delivery trucks park in the center of the street.  With cars lining the sides, it made it very challenging to maneuver the coach.

The old buildings still have the original printing like Sheep Sheering Union office, and the mines still display the old equipment.

On Highway 93 there is an "animals bridge" over the highway.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but it was a wide grass-like overpass for deer, etc. to safely cross over the highway.  I thought that was pretty cool considering all the deer I have seen along the highways.

The Museum of the Plains Indian contains a superb collection of costumes, accessories and dioramas that detail the lifestyles of 11 tribes of the norther plaines before the arrival of white settler in the 1800s.






The Old West comes to life through the brush and sculpture of famed western artist Charlie Russell at the Charles M. Russell Museum Complex in Great Falls. The museum contains the world's largest collection of Russell's work, his original log-cabin studio and his Great Falls home.

 The Great Falls of the Missouri and the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center -

"...whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further, I saw the spray arrise above the plain like a collumn of smoke ... which soon began to make a roaring too tremendous to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri ... " Captain Meriwether Lewis

Loved this museum - very well done, but especially liked the excerpts from the journals of Lewis and Clark.

The Roe River:  World's Shortest River: about 201 ft. 

 

Fort Benton

Cut Bank penguin

A couple of interesting things to note as I moved into Alberta, Canada - First, the Mountie wasn't going to let me cross; it took an hour before he finally relented.  The issue was that I didn't have a "permanent" US residence so how could they be sure I wouldn't just stay in Canada?  I've never had that issue before.  He didn't even ask if I had any produce.  😀

Second, when you use your credit card in Canada, you have to sign the receipt - only US citizens have to sign because our credit card companies require the signature; no other country does.  So, I'm paying for my meal and I remind the waitress that I need to sign as I'm from the states.  Her comment:  I knew you were from the states when you asked for unsweetened tea; we don't serve it that way in Canada and only people from the states order it that way.  OK, I'll stop asking for it then.😃

Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park

Glacier National Park, call the "Crown of the Continent" by early conservationist George Bird Grinnell, who helped establish the park in 1910/  It preserves over one million acres of mountains and glaciers.

Only 11 miles were open on the Going to the Sun road from the West and 7 miles from the East.

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park

Waterton Lakes National Park is located adjacent to Glacier National Park.   In 1932, the two parks became the world's first International Peace Park.

Also, Waterton Lakes National Park was the first Canadian national park to be designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1979.  More than half of Alberta's plant species can be found in Waterton.

Lastly, the park has two National Historic sites located within its boundaries; the First Oil Well in Western Canada NHS and the Prince of Wales Hotel NHS.

Unfortunately, all of the scenic parkways were closed due to the 2017 Kenow wildfire.

About Alberta

Alberta is one of the fastest growing provinces in Canada with a population of more than four million.

Alberta is the fourth largest province in Canada, covering an area of 255,214 square miles.  They are known as a prairie province but the landscapes vary from towering mountains, glacial lakes and vast boreal forests to rolling foothills, fertile prairies, and desert badlands.  Alberta has more than 600 lakes and 245 rivers.

Alberta has the highest number of sunny days in Canada with 312.  Calgary is Canada's sunniest city, averaging 2,400 hours annually.

Alberta is home to 587 species of wildlife, many of which are endangered or protected.

The primary language is English, but French is also spoken in Alberta.

I spent 4 days camping near this town.  It has wonderful murals.

A long time ago, according to one legend, the people were driving buffalo over these sandstone cliffs.  A young brave wanted to watch the buffalo tumbling past.  Standing under the shelter of a ledge, as if behind a waterfall, he watched the great beasts fall.  The hunt was unusually good that day and as the bodies piled up, he became trapped between the animals and the cliffs. When his people began the butchering, they found him with his skull crushed by the weight of the buffalo carcasses.  Thus, they named this place "Head-Smashed-In".

Part of the interior decor in the casino I stayed at in Lethbridge.

Because of a lawsuit over the use of the art, no pictures are allowed.

Unfortunately for me, 3 of the days I've been here it has snowed.  Most things I've wanted to see have been closed.  Oh well, I'll have to come back!