Winter is a-coming, placing some strain on the Sunday drive outing.
While we wait for the snow and the cold winter forecast for the Prairies there are plenty of places for an afternoon drive or walk.
In early to mid-September seeing the various colours of leaves turning in the hills of Buffalo Pound Provincial Park is like seeing an artist’s best work.
A day trip to Fort Qu’Appelle and on the highway past by the Fishing Lakes offers the same spectacular views.
Closer to home, the trails in Wakamow let us see the same style of nature’s art and we need only go a few minutes to arrive.
The Trans-Canada Trail from behind Chateau St. Michael leads through the bush across the river valley to the highway south of Ninth Avenue West.
The former Wild Animal Park, now used mostly as a dog park has interesting scenery along the Moose Jaw River and in the old zoo location.
Most of the travel in my summer WHERE WE CAN GO series is on paved highways.
Don’t be afraid of taking gravel roads if the weather is good. You may be surprised at the sights, especially wildlife.
As for getting lost in Saskatchewan, keep driving and sooner or later you will come across a paved highway and the path back to city life.
A guide book showing all the rural municipalities and their road systems is available. I bought mine at a Canadian Tire store.
The first edition even included locations of local landmarks and old churches. That was dropped in subsequent editions, likely over fears of vandalism at these sites.
The WHERE WE CAN GO series was written to give restless persons some ideas for short, inexpensive, socially-distant trips that would relieve some of the stress caused by the virus lockdown.
The reception was much better than this Scribbler had expected. Hopefully, many of our readers took the opportunity to do one or more of the day trips.
My apologies to residents of the fine towns of Marquis and Tugaske, and any other community that felt it was left out of an article about their area.
This brief series shows you don’t have to travels days to see interesting places. These articles focused on southern Saskatchewan.
The southeast exhibits trees, stone architecture, hills, history and lakes, as does the central and northeast.
The northwest offers tours of the sites where the Riel Rebellion took place as well as oddities like the crooked trees, Turtleford Hills and plenty of lakes and forest.
There was some misunderstanding about the articles. After one early article a reader e-mailed asking about the cost of the trip to the Wood Mountain Hills. He thought it was a guided tour, wanting to pay for his mother to do the trip.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
