motorhoming! – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Centre Block, SK)

Marlies WobbenSaskatchewan - Other1 Comment

» photo album 2009/0921 ~ Motorhoming! Cypress Hills, SK

The Cypress Hills rise up about 600m above the prairie, with lodgepole pine trees and a.o. deer, elk, moose and cougars. A good destination for our last trip of this year!

Monday September 21

Nico came out of nightshift this day, so he still had to sleep for half a day before we could head out to Cypress Hills. We hoped to get there before dark, but we also had to pick up my bike at the bike shop and get gas before we could hit the highway. Around 6 we were getting close to Swift Current and we decided to stop there for the night. We rolled into the Trail Campground there, a nice campground right next to the town. As it was my birthday, I had been looking forward to a nice dinner at the resort on Cypress Hills, but I had to settle for a nearby Houston Pizza 😉

Tuesday September 22

We had a nice and relaxed night, and after a chat with the lady (Wies) in the campground office, who moved here from Holland in ’54, we went for groceries in town and then continued our trip to the Centre Block of Cypress Hills. Only two campgrounds were still open and we picked a nice spot on the Rainbow Campground. The weather was gorgeous, we just relaxed there and barbecued. Then we got a visit by a very curious buck deer. He came over to our site, dared to come close and sniffed Tess (almost nose to nose) and startled when she hissed at him 😉 He walked around the cats and towards Nico by the picnic table. Then he looked at the cats again and figured he’d better get out of here 🙂 We weren’t sure if he was just curious or trying to intimidate us (as it’s rutting season), it was probably a mix of both 😉

Wednesday September 23

What a great place to wake up. Not only is it a nice campsite and is the weather great, but the pine trees also smell so good. In the afternoon we went for a little bike ride in the park. We went to the small lake (Loch Leven) and biked around it, then went to the visitor centre and the restaurant at the Cypress Hills Resort Inn. We went in for coffee, but ended up having supper already 🙂 Nice people, nice building, nice food!

Thursday September 24

A very lazy day today, the only acitivity today was a short hike over the Woodland Trail from our campground to the resort (and back), and Nico’s firewood chopping 😉

Friday September 25

We had breakfast at the resort and felt like going for a drive (the Centre Block Auto Tour). Of course we wanted to see wildlife and we knew our chances were much smaller during the day than in the evening, but we didn’t want to wait. It was a very scenic drive, at first over a bumpy gravel/cobblestone road past the boy scout’s camp, then a paved part past two truly spectacular viewpoints and the rest was over pretty good gravel roads over the fescue prairie on top of the Cypress Hills plateau. Those viewpoints were Lookout Point and Bald Butte, where you have stunning views over the prairie to the north. You can see Maple Creek and even a bit of the Great Sand Hills that are 100 km to the north! From Bald Butte you can also see the Gap (the valley between the Centre and West Blocks) and the West Block itself.
At the end of our drive we went to the Highland Trail and hiked around the ponds in that little valley there. No moose to be seen, but gorgeous scenery with the fall colours.
On the campground we started a fire and cooked on there for a change. We decided to winterize the motorhome after this trip, so this was the last camping evening for this season!

Saturday September 26

We could’ve stayed one more night, but decided to leave today, so we’d have some time at home too, before we had to work on Monday again. We left at 9.15am, grabbed a coffee at Caroline’s in Maple Creek (but we both didn’t like our coffees much) and I made some sandwiches once we were on the highway again. After another brief stop in Swift Current (for gas and better coffees ;)) we kept going until we got home around 3. After cleaning and winterizing the motorhome, we’ll be hibernating for the winter and regularly looking at the pictures of all the great trips we have made this first season!!

Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – Rainbow Campground

One of the many campgrounds in the Centre Block, in a gorgeous forest setting. Rainbow was the last one with services to be open after the main season, it was 1-1.5 km away from the core area. We picked a full service site as they seemed a bit more level than most other spots. Despite the extra services in the park being closed (grocery store, cafe, food etc) we still had to pay the full rate of $26 (normal provincial rate). We didn’t have to pay park entrance anymore (but we had a year pass anyway). The only extra service in the park that was still open (besides the visitor centre) was the Cypress Hills Resort Inn with its (good) restaurant. We did not check out the small toilet buildings on the campground, only the service centre (with toilets and showers) that was very nice and very clean! Beautiful park, just a bit too hilly to bike much.

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One Comment on “motorhoming! – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Centre Block, SK)”

  1. Hallo vanuit Kreta,

    Ik lees regelmatig jullie blog, ook wij hebben drie jaar geleden Belgie verlaten om ons op Kreta te vestigen.

    Ik ben op zoek naar het emailadres van Mihalis Manousakis, Roka Carpets, Chania. Op deze blog vond ik in 2007 een commentaar van Anja, zijn vrouw. Misschien hebben jullie haar email-adres ? Ik wil hen iets vragen ivm weven.

    Katrien, Pano Elounda, Kreta

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