Planning Part 5 - Day Two Saskatoon to Winnipeg

Day two of our trip should provide less of a conundrum than the first - continuing east from Saskatoon toward Ontario, all roads pretty much converge on Winnipeg. Highway 16 is the most direct route, but a  detour slightly north on Highway 5 in Saskatchewan will provide some interesting stops. The driving time alone will be approximately 8 hours, which means we'll need to be judicious with our stops and won't likely be able to spend much time at all these places or even visit them all, but here's a healthy itinerary of some things to see and do between Saskatoon and Winnipeg.

Day 2 Part 1

The stops on the first leg come from Saskatchewan Tourism's Multicultural Heritage of Saskatchewan Driving Tour. While we won't complete the entire tour, I've picked out a couple of stops that seem interesting.

Humboldt, SK
The town of Humboldt houses the Humboldt and District Museum as well as murals on the German-style  buildings. The original Humboldt site (slightly east and south of its current location) was a communications (telegraph) hub for the North-West Rebellion of 1885, and today, houses several storyboards to tell of this history. Since learning more about the rebellion, I have to admit to being kind of bummed about not being able to visit some of the historic sites related to it. So, I am excited about having at least one stop related to this event.

St. Peter's Cathedral, image from Wikipedia

Muenster, SK
In Muenster, another German-style town just down the road from Humboldt, St. Peter's Cathedral arises out of the prairie landscape. It boasts twin towers on the exterior, and a beautiful interior that contains 80 life-sized paintings and frescoes of religious figures.

Yorkton, SK
Back on Highway 16 east, you come to Yorkton, SK. Attractions here include St. Mary`s Ukrainian Catholic Parish with an elaborately painted dome, and the Western Development Museum, which chronicles the settling of the prairies.

Not far past Yorkton, is the Manitoba border, and the second leg of the journey. A great source of information on things to see and do is the Travel Manitoba website.

Day 2 Part 2

Minnedosa, MB
Having worked for a company with a plant in Minnedosa, I have a curiosity to stop in this town I have heard about for years. As luck would have it, Minnedosa is also home to the Minnedosa District Museum and Heritage Village.The village consists of eleven furnished historical buildings, a restored blacksmith`s shop, windmill, waterwheel and much more.

Neepawa, MB
Just down the road from Minnedosa, is the town of Neepawa. The town boasts a number of historical buildings including the Beautiful Plains County Courthouse (National Heritage Site) built in 1884, Beautiful Plains Museum housed in a CNR station built in 1902, and the home of famed Canadian author Margaret Laurence.

Portage la Prairie, MB
This city`s name, derived from the prairie portage between the Red and Assiniboine rivers and Lake Manitoba, is historically significant in and of itself. It is also home to Fort la Reine Museum. The museum contains  28 heritage homes and buildings, and is designed to provide a glimpse into the life of prairie pioneers.

Winnipeg, MB
This will be one of our fullest days of driving and touring. Even if we decide not to stop at each of the attractions noted above, it will be quite late by the time we arrive in Winnipeg, and we will not likely have time to see or do much there. Fortunately, Winnipeg is one of the few places we`ll pass through twice. So while I`ve compiled a decent list of things to see and do in this city, its not likely we`ll tackle any of them until our return trip.

More than likely our second day will conclude in a hotel on the outskirts of Winnipeg, with us stopping just long enough to rest for our next day`s adventure.

Planning Part 4 - Day One Saskatchewan

Planning our trek through Saskatchewan has proven to be a bit of a conundrum.

While we will technically travel through this province twice (once as we head east, and again on the way back to Calgary), I know us... given the return trip will occur on the final days of a month on the road, it is safe to presume that our sights will be firmly fixed on home. We won't likely stop for more than base necessities - gas, food and bathroom breaks. If past experience is any indication, the last two will be considered largely unnecessary by our driver... at least until the integrity of our backseat is threatened.

As we've decided not to linger in the western provinces due to their proximity to home, that leaves us a day and a half in Saskatchewan and two dilemmas - what route to take, and what to see. Or perhaps more aptly, what not to see - because there is so much we're going to miss.

Given my desire to focus this trip on our country's history, there are several routes we could take. A route north of Saskatoon would take us into to heart of the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Faced with the loss of the buffalo and the prospect of losing their lands to incoming settlers, the local Métis and First Nations populations enlisted an exiled Louis Reil to petition the government on their behalf. The situation soon escalated into insurgent combat, with important battles fought at Batoche and Fort Battleford, both of which are now National Historic Sites. I'd love to learn more about this period in history, and the Trails of 1885 website provides some excellent self-guided driving tours for this region. Unfortunately, it is a little too far north to be practical for this trip, so it will need to be saved for another time.

Southern Saskatchewan is equally historically significant, having hosted the North West Mounted Police as they marched west to curtail the whiskey trade and bring law and order to the frontier. Fort Walsh has been designated a National Historic Site, and memorializes the relationship formed between the NWMP and the First Nations. In addition to history, there is also a wealth of natural and geographical spots of interest including Cypress Hills, Grasslands National Park, Big Muddy Badlands, and the Great Sand Hills. Saskatchewan Tourism provides an intriguing 6 day itinerary for this area in its Cowboy Country Driving Tour. The minimum six day tour highlights that simply passing through this area wouldn't do it justice.

Having thus ruled out the north and south routes, we are left with the middle. Day one would take us from Calgary through the badlands near Drumheller, through Kindersley, SK and ultimately stopping in Saskatoon. Although Saskatoon is only 5-6 hours from Calgary, and despite an interest in visiting Wanuskewin Heritage Park since it opened in 1992, I've never actually been there. Thus, it seems fitting to start the trip by fulfilling a long-held desire. It also seems fitting to start our historical exploration of Canada with the First Nations, who inhabited this land for 20,000 years prior to anyone from Europe setting foot on it.

Given that we have had a decent number of trips to Drumheller area, we won't likely stop there for any significant amount of time. In fact, we may choose another, slightly faster route to the south. One potential stop would be the Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre in Hershel, SK to view the small town museum of fossils and petroglyphs (the archaeologist in me wants to see the petroglyphs). Other than that, there is not much between Calgary and Saskatoon than open road and prairie. 

Hopefully, with an early start we'll have time the first day to visit Wanuskewin (if not we'll fit it into the next day). The park is located on a traditional gathering place of the Northern Plains First Nations with archaeological finds dating before the pyramids of Egypt. It boasts interpretive walks as well as an interpretive centre.

If we stick to our planned start date of July 1 (I'm toying with leaving on June 30, but that's another post...), we'll be in Saskatoon for Canada Day. That means that after spending some time exploring the city, there is a very good chance that we'll end day one in Diefenbaker Park watching fireworks.

Planning Part 3 - Day Four Thunder Bay, Ontario

As per the current planned itinerary, Day 3 ends in Thunder Bay, ON. I'll confess a general ignorance of this part of the country. Unfortunately, I don't think I am alone in this - despite its stunning beauty, Northern Ontario just doesn't get the same kind of exposure as the charm of the Maritimes, the old-world feel of Quebec or the rugged beauty of the Rockies. As a result, I didn't give too much thought to this area when doing my initial planning, and hadn't planned on spending more than a night there.

Terry Fox Memorial, Image from Wikipedia

My first itinerary adjustment is to right this wrong. With so much to see and do in the Thunder Bay area, it warrants an extra day to do it justice. To be fair, it warrants more than an extra day, but that's all we can spare, so a full day it will have to be.

We will likely be rolling into Thunder Bay sometime in the evening of the third day. We'll be coming from Winnipeg, and even without any stops will be looking at a seven to eight hour drive. Once we find dinner and get settled, this will probably leave just enough time to see the Terry Fox Memorial or walk the waterfront. Everything else will need to fit into the next day.

 The area around Thunder Bay is literally packed with parks and conservation areas, including the Lakehead Region Conservation Areas, Lake Superior Marine Conservation Area, Pigeon River Provincial Park, Wabakimi Provincial Park, Quetico Provincial Park, and Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park... but there are two in particular that have captured my curiosity.

Sleeping Giant, Image from Wikipedia

Kakabeka Falls, 25 minutes outside of Thunder Bay, is home to Ontario's second highest falls. As well as viewing the falls, there are several short walking trails.

Sleeping Giant first caught my attention when I read it was a finalist in the Seven Wonders of Canada. When viewed from a certain angle, the rock formation indeed looks like a prone sleeper. But its the beauty of the park when you are actually in it, the hiking and wildlife viewing opportunities that are most captivating.

 One top of visiting those two natural parks, there is Fort William Historic Park. This reconstruction of the North West Company Fur Trading Post depicts the lives of the Metis, Scottish, First Nation and French-Canadian trappers and traders that lived at the post, and played a pivotal role in settling the West.

The last must do of Thunder Bay - a visit to the Persian Man for the local pastry specialty.