Winter Family Travels in 2005: Day Thirteen

Grasslands National Park is a most amazing piece of land. The flat plateau is cut into by ancient river beds and has produced an incredibily beautiful and unique landscape. The prairie vegetation on the table top and hillsides are short grasses, sage brush, cactus and a wonderful arrary of different wildflowers. In the lee side of the coulees and on the floor of the canyons by the riverbeds, long grasses, bushes and small trees may grow. Grasslands is the home to many different animals. This is the last home in Canada for the Black Tailed prairie Dogs; they are very cute to watch. The Sage Grouse, prairie rattlesnake, burrowing owl are wildlife that we did not see, but make their home here. We saw pronghorn, mule deer (with very large ears) and heard the coyotes. Missing is the buffalo or bison. We did find out that the park will be recieving 60 to 70 head of buffalo in December. They are working on the fencing as we speak.

It rained our first night, and the wind came up and rattled the tent. The girls tent is much better in the wind than ours. Margot woke at dawn and was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise. By the time we all got up a couple of hours later the clouds and rain had moved in again. The rain would be under one cloud and then blow away and then another cloud came and drizzled on us. We travelled down the road from our campsite on the Ecotour Trail and went to the prairie dog town. We travelled through and around the park (all gravel roads) back to Val Marie to get a few groceries and water. After lunch and with such disappointing weather Stewart and Margot retired to their tent to catch up on sleep and the girls read and played in their tent.

We woke up at 3.00 to that wonderful blue sky and sun that Saskatchewan is famous for. We went on a 4.5 km hike over the hills across from our campsite. We saw one snake, but not a rattler! Lots of animal tracks, cactus and small flowers. A delicious spagetti dinner and a retreat from the mosquitoes that had decended. We had a card game in Margot and Stewart's tent. No wind, no rain, so a wonderful sleep with the coyotes only heard twice.