Day 31 Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park

Today was time for moving on. These last few days in Grasslands have been outstanding. In the book, If You’re Not from the Prairie by David Bouchard, he claims if you’re not from the prairie you don’t know the sky, you can’t know the sky…and then he attempts to describe it. I think I now have an idea, certainly more of an idea than when I read this beautiful book to my students, of exactly what he is trying to say. The prairie is different than anywhere I have been, and I understand sky, and vast, and serene differently now! For any non-campers who may be interested in Grasslands National Park, they do have oTENTiks. A sort of cross between a tent and a cabin, these offerings are in many National Parks and are a great way for anyone to have a chance to experience the kind of week we’ve had. I would recommend a few days in the West Block and then move to a few days in the East Block. They are 2.5 hours apart and moving would give you a chance to see them both without as much driving back and forth - although the drives here are spectacular too!

We have seen so much wildlife. About the only things we didn’t see were the Great Short-horned Lizard and the Prairie Chickens! We were discussing this on the ride out of the park today and also mentioned, given the large number of bison here, we were surprised we didn’t see any on the roadways. The words had barely left my lips when a bison appeared at the roadside, close enough to see the patterns in his hide! We also mentioned we would be thrilled to come back and do and see all the same things again. It really is an incredible place to visit.

We are not getting closer than this!

The town of Climax! Not sure how this is the "climax" of anything - this is it, the entire town!

The ride to our next stop at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park was just under three hours away. We discovered that despite their proximity, the two places could not be more different. For most of the ride here we drove through a landscape somewhat more lush than most of the Grasslands, but not significantly different. We drove along (mostly on dirt roads!) and learned the difference between farms and ranches. A farm’s primary focus is the cultivation of crops while a ranch is primarily focused on raising livestock. (I wondered why a dairy is a farm not a ranch. It’s because the focus of the operation is on milk production) We saw deer, and fox, and ferruginous hawks. David constantly played dodge-‘em with the suicidal ground squirrels! We passed tiny little communities, so very isolated from one another we spent much time discussing what it must be like to live here.  After three hours of driving through endless field we suddenly reached a forest of very tall lodgepole pines – and we had found Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. The park is the biggest community we have seen in some time. There are more than 700 campsites here on the highest point in Canada between Labrador and the Rocky Mountains. In addition to the campgrounds there are resort accommodations and restaurants, hiking and swimming, a night observatory and an amphitheatre, treetop trekking and Segway tours. We haven’t seen this much action in weeks! It also houses Fort Walsh National Historic Site. I suspect we will have plenty to keep us busy in the next few days.

Today though, after a week in the wilderness, showers and laundry were the adventures of choice. That and cleaning the trailer of the pounds of sand dust that were kicked up on those dirt roads today! After dinner we walked over to the amphitheatre to listen to the live music they bring in on weekend evenings. It was quite good and the setting in the middle of the tall pines as the sun went down was beautiful. This will be a do-again after supper for the next couple of days!

The area surrounding the campsites with trails everywhere.

Jack Humeny was our evening entertainer! Pleasant to listen to. The best line ever in one of his songs..."how old would you be if you didn't know the day you were born"

The Amphitheatre 💓