Day Nine
Time to back up and leave this suprisingly big city (Winnipeg). I must admit that it can be a bit confusing in the navigation department. The girls had one more swim in the pool before we left. We were too tired to do laundry last night and grocercies, so after the hotel we went to the Safeway to stock up. Two sets of people asked us where we were going -- to the lake or what? To load the cooler we had to unload the one half of back of the truck onto the parking lot. Skies were sunny with cloud; a very promising start to the day.
We traveled west and north to Riding Mountain National Park. Stopped for lunch in Portage la Prairie at an A&W. They are very popular out here; you see them more than the golden arches. Stewart was the one to drink root beer as us girls have either never had it and can't stand the stuff! Love the big glass mugs though.
We headed north and the landscape truly changes from the amazingly flat to lovely gently rolling hills with small flat plains in-between. Very hard to describe. The forests are short compared to Ontario. Every field and many spots inbetween have little ponds; some must be there are all summer long as they have cattails and the fields are plowed around them. In every pond of water there is some kind of duck. A most amazing array and variety of ducks. We have to purchase a Western Canada guide to figure out what these little guys are. As you head north it is less grain farming and more cattle.
Arrived in the middle of the afternoon to dark and threatening skies. National parks are very different than provincial parks. we went to the visitors centre and found that it was in the middle of this little resort town. Found the laundromat called the Loondromat. Got ideas for hikes and then off to set up camp. Our site was one of the few not underwater.
We set up the kitchen tent first and good thing because you know what happens next; it starts to rain. When we had checked in we found out that they have had unprecedented amount of rain and unfortunately the road to the bison preserve was washed out so we will miss that. After dinner, we took the boardwalk hike around the marsh. We saw a beaver building something out of mud. You could see him carrying the mud in his paws.
Wasagaming (Clear Lake) in Riding Mountain NP
Riding Mountain National Park Visitor Centre
Beaver in the marsh
We traveled west and north to Riding Mountain National Park. Stopped for lunch in Portage la Prairie at an A&W. They are very popular out here; you see them more than the golden arches. Stewart was the one to drink root beer as us girls have either never had it and can't stand the stuff! Love the big glass mugs though.
We headed north and the landscape truly changes from the amazingly flat to lovely gently rolling hills with small flat plains in-between. Very hard to describe. The forests are short compared to Ontario. Every field and many spots inbetween have little ponds; some must be there are all summer long as they have cattails and the fields are plowed around them. In every pond of water there is some kind of duck. A most amazing array and variety of ducks. We have to purchase a Western Canada guide to figure out what these little guys are. As you head north it is less grain farming and more cattle.
Arrived in the middle of the afternoon to dark and threatening skies. National parks are very different than provincial parks. we went to the visitors centre and found that it was in the middle of this little resort town. Found the laundromat called the Loondromat. Got ideas for hikes and then off to set up camp. Our site was one of the few not underwater.
We set up the kitchen tent first and good thing because you know what happens next; it starts to rain. When we had checked in we found out that they have had unprecedented amount of rain and unfortunately the road to the bison preserve was washed out so we will miss that. After dinner, we took the boardwalk hike around the marsh. We saw a beaver building something out of mud. You could see him carrying the mud in his paws.
Wasagaming (Clear Lake) in Riding Mountain NP
Riding Mountain National Park Visitor Centre
Beaver in the marsh
posted by Winter Family Web Logs at 12:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home