Day 29 Grasslands National Park

July 09, 2025

At one point today the readout on the truck read 39⁰, and that was without a humidex! The skies on the prairies are astonishing. The views on the prairies are breathtaking. The heat on the prairies is incredibly oppressive. There is no shade. There is no escape. It’s so incredibly awesome though that we don’t want to waste a day inside an air-conditioned trailer, so we decided to head out in a different direction in the air-conditioned truck. The hybrid means we are not using much gas. We can tootle along. Walk for as long as we can stand and hop back in the truck to meander some more! A solution to a very significant problem today!

It was a great solution! The pictures speak for themselves. We set off in the general direction of Val Marie, a village of 120 people, and the closest place to the park. Another friendly little spot with anything you could possibly need – as long as you didn’t need much! It is nestled into the corner of the park boundary, and we spent the day coming in and out of the park as the border dictated. We were the only people to check out the hiking trails on that side of the park today (Imagine that – the only people to check out hiking with no possible shade in 39⁰ temperatures!!) We had the luxury of hiking until it was enough and then heading back to the sanctuary of the cool truck. We navigated a gas stop at a card-lock station. We stopped for ice cream on a small-town main street. We picked up milk and chatted with locals at the local general store. We had a delightful meander and mostly avoided the heat.

The original Val Marie schoolhouse, now a museum. We learned about the cattle drives through the last half of the 1800s. Long horns were herded and driven from Texas to Val Marie, the northern terminus of the trail. These cattle drives provided meat and horses to the North West Mounted Police and breeding stock to the early settlers!

These two-wheeled "Red River Carts" were used by the Metis to haul furs and other goods across the prairie. They were made from wood and animal hide, both readily available. It also meant repairs could be easily performed along the route. They could be easily converted to boats to cross rivers when bison hides covered the wheels!