Big Sky Country and getting lost in it.
Our next destination is a place called Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park which is 20 kms south of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. We left Calgary around 11:00 a.m. but by the time we got gas and got out of the city it was more like 12:00. We didn’t mind because it was only a 4.5 hour drive, easy peasy...or so we thought. The drive to Maple Creek was beautiful. I understand why its called Big Sky country. You can just see for miles and mile. Gorgeous rolling hills, with various livestock and crops dotted along the highway. I know some people might wonder why we are sticking to the trans Canada highway because it would probably be nicer on the secondary roads, but we are on a bit of a schedule to get to Ontario no later than June 2nd without having to drive 12 hours a day.
I should mention a couple of things we have done to enhance the hours in the truck. I signed up for Spotify premium in order to download playlists instead of listening to radio with spotty reception. And I also signed up for Audible.com which is a audio book club you can download and listen to while you are driving. We are really loving the book I picked called “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.” I has had us laughing hysterically at times and great conversations after each chapter. I highly recommend the app and the book!
One of the chapters talks about what makes people happy. The author says, you cannot find happiness without a certain amount of struggle and/or sacrifice. I know some people may think we live an idealistic life, travelling as much as we do, but we sacrific a lot and work ridiculously hard when we are at home in order to do it. But neither one of us minds, because the “struggle” is worth it in the end. We don’t drive fancy cars (mine is 20 years old) and we live in a house with a suite in it to help with the mortgage. There are 3 university students living in there and if you don’t think sharing a dhouse with three 22 year old men is a sacrifice, come on over on a Friday night after exams are finished, and you will get the idea. That said, they are great housemates otherwise, and they offer a little financial boon while we are away as well as home security as the house is never empty.
So back to Maple Creek. You have to drive through Maple Creek to get to Cypress Hills. And like any good travellers we are armed with all the latest technology, a Garmin GSP, and of course Google Maps. I got extra data on my phone in case I may need to use the maps app.
We arrived in Maple creek around 4:30 which was what time we thought we would get there. Cypress Hills is a HUGE provincial park and there are more ways than one to enter it. We are staying in the centre block but it wasn’t really intuitive to put that in the GPS (there is no intuition with gps) so we decided to use google maps. We started down highway 271 as directed towards the west block which was all I could find on google maps. After driving for 40 mins, we were directed to turn off the highway onto a dirt road for 30 kilometres. So we did. Dirt road/goat path, same thing, I reckon. We both just knew this couldn’t be right but now we are on a single lane dirt road with no where to turn the 49 ft of truck and trailer around. We finally happened upon some cowboys branding cattle.
Joe got out and asked if we were going the right way, the nice rancher said yes, eventually you will get there but the road gets much worse so we would be better off to turn around and go back to Maple Creek and start again. The operative words being turn around. Good thing I am driving with fearless Joe and he was able to pull into a tractor path down the road a bit and turned the truck and trailer on a dime. The cowboys applauded as we drove back past them, enough said. We headed back to where we came from. I had the realization that there may be a chance the park would be closing soon so I decided to phone to see what time the gate closed. Then I asked for directions as I said, “We are lost somewhere in southern Saskachewan”. She laughed and asked where were, and I said driving north on hwy 271. The bright woman on the other end of the phone said, let me look at a map (insert the rustling of paper here). She said drive back to Maple Creek and take hwy 21 south, you can’t miss us.
If we had only had a map... or 3...
We finally pulled into the park at 6:00 p.m. elated to finally arrive.
And what a park it is! 400 sq kms stretching over the Alberta Sask border. It has a beautiful lake, golf course, horse back riding, zip lines, pool, tennis courts, endless trails for hiking and biking plus all the amenities you could ask for, (free firewood, showers and flush toilets) as well as a general store, gas station and a cafe, all nestled in an amazing cypress forest. From our campsite, all you can see is forest but once you get on the main road the possibilities are endless! For our snowbird friends, its kind of like your rv park but with 100 % nature all around.
One little piece of housekeeping, be sure to sign your name if you make a comment on this blog, it is not an automatic notification.
I should mention a couple of things we have done to enhance the hours in the truck. I signed up for Spotify premium in order to download playlists instead of listening to radio with spotty reception. And I also signed up for Audible.com which is a audio book club you can download and listen to while you are driving. We are really loving the book I picked called “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.” I has had us laughing hysterically at times and great conversations after each chapter. I highly recommend the app and the book!
One of the chapters talks about what makes people happy. The author says, you cannot find happiness without a certain amount of struggle and/or sacrifice. I know some people may think we live an idealistic life, travelling as much as we do, but we sacrific a lot and work ridiculously hard when we are at home in order to do it. But neither one of us minds, because the “struggle” is worth it in the end. We don’t drive fancy cars (mine is 20 years old) and we live in a house with a suite in it to help with the mortgage. There are 3 university students living in there and if you don’t think sharing a dhouse with three 22 year old men is a sacrifice, come on over on a Friday night after exams are finished, and you will get the idea. That said, they are great housemates otherwise, and they offer a little financial boon while we are away as well as home security as the house is never empty.
So back to Maple Creek. You have to drive through Maple Creek to get to Cypress Hills. And like any good travellers we are armed with all the latest technology, a Garmin GSP, and of course Google Maps. I got extra data on my phone in case I may need to use the maps app.
We arrived in Maple creek around 4:30 which was what time we thought we would get there. Cypress Hills is a HUGE provincial park and there are more ways than one to enter it. We are staying in the centre block but it wasn’t really intuitive to put that in the GPS (there is no intuition with gps) so we decided to use google maps. We started down highway 271 as directed towards the west block which was all I could find on google maps. After driving for 40 mins, we were directed to turn off the highway onto a dirt road for 30 kilometres. So we did. Dirt road/goat path, same thing, I reckon. We both just knew this couldn’t be right but now we are on a single lane dirt road with no where to turn the 49 ft of truck and trailer around. We finally happened upon some cowboys branding cattle.
Joe got out and asked if we were going the right way, the nice rancher said yes, eventually you will get there but the road gets much worse so we would be better off to turn around and go back to Maple Creek and start again. The operative words being turn around. Good thing I am driving with fearless Joe and he was able to pull into a tractor path down the road a bit and turned the truck and trailer on a dime. The cowboys applauded as we drove back past them, enough said. We headed back to where we came from. I had the realization that there may be a chance the park would be closing soon so I decided to phone to see what time the gate closed. Then I asked for directions as I said, “We are lost somewhere in southern Saskachewan”. She laughed and asked where were, and I said driving north on hwy 271. The bright woman on the other end of the phone said, let me look at a map (insert the rustling of paper here). She said drive back to Maple Creek and take hwy 21 south, you can’t miss us.
If we had only had a map... or 3...
And what a park it is! 400 sq kms stretching over the Alberta Sask border. It has a beautiful lake, golf course, horse back riding, zip lines, pool, tennis courts, endless trails for hiking and biking plus all the amenities you could ask for, (free firewood, showers and flush toilets) as well as a general store, gas station and a cafe, all nestled in an amazing cypress forest. From our campsite, all you can see is forest but once you get on the main road the possibilities are endless! For our snowbird friends, its kind of like your rv park but with 100 % nature all around.
One very cool aspect of this park is it’s designated night sky status, which basically means they use very low watt lights in order to enhance the night sky. So once the sun went down, we climbed in the truck and went to the look out point to see the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time (thanks Gord Downey).
Words cannot express the natural beauty of this spot. All I can say is, “wow, we have a beautiful country!” Can’t wait to see the next 7 provinces.
One little piece of housekeeping, be sure to sign your name if you make a comment on this blog, it is not an automatic notification.
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