|
|
A bit late, but here’s the update about our trip to Waskesiu almost 4 weeks ago!
Wednesday August 26th
 All year ‘everybody’ kept telling us that we should go up north to Waskesiu. So finally we did! It’s about 6 hrs for us with the motorhome, plus we stopped by the Highway 16 Jct for gas and to stretch our legs, and we very briefly visited Caroline in Prince Albert. Close to 8pm we arrived in Waskesiu, just before dusk. We immediately fell in love. People kept saying how beautiful it is up here, but nobody said it was THIS beautiful! Even the campground for long trailers that seemed like a parking lot on Google Earth with only few trees is gorgeous! Some parts are very open, but we picked a spot between huge pine trees and bordering trees and bushes. At dusk we walked to the lake, just in time for some past-sunset pics. Stunning colours!!! We walked to town along the lakeside trail in front of gorgeous cabins, watching carefully for wildlife (elk and black bears frequent the area) to avoid surprise encounters. We visited the grocery store and walked back over the main road. We had to cross a big part of the Trailer Park campground to our spot, and it was inevitable to walk through some dark areas. We kept talking to let possible wildlife know we were there, but still we almost literally bumped into an elk in that darkest part!! She was only a few metres away when I spotted her on the left side of the path, so I startled and back away behind a picnic table on the right side. But she wasn’t bothered by us, so she kept grazing and we walked around her to go to our own motorhome without any more surprises. Not the smartest move to walk around after dark, but it was worth the hike after 6 hrs of driving 
Thursday August 27th
 Partly cloudy and not as warm as it was supposed to be, but still nice to bike to town after breakfast. We again took the trail in front of the beachfront cabins (wow…) and had a latte at the Beach House. In the afternoon we chilled at the campside. We were allowed to move to a more forested part of the campground that you could only reserve for RVs up to 27′, if we’d see a place we’d think we’d fit in. It was a beautiful part, and we should fit in several of those spots, but we’re happy at the more open part too (more to see I guess), so we’re staying put. In the bushes by our motorhome I already spotted a deer today!
For supper we went to the Asian Station in town, where we also saw deer and afterwards we went to the golf course. We were only in a small corner of it, but there we saw deer and elk together (both moms with their offspring). We kept our distance in passing around them, but at some point the small deer both came towards where we were and passed us very close by. Just amazing. We left the golf course again to get an ice cream and watch the sunset on the breaker by the beach! After that we went back to the campground and watched a movie.
Friday August 28th
 We walked to the store by the cabin park on the main road for some fresh rolls for breakfast and hung out at the campsite, where we saw deer walk by again. Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a drive. We took the route along the north side of the lake, the Kingsmere Road. A well maintained gravel road where you can often see wildlife, but we didn’t see any (maybe because it was the middle of the day). Still a beautiful drive though! We stopped by the Waskesiu River, the Waskesiu Marina and the Hanging Heart Marina.
At night we had a meal in town and biked to the golf course again afterwards. This time we found the elk herd including the bull! Leaving the golf course we caught the gorgeous colours just after sunset – I don’t think I’ve ever seen them as beautiful as in Waskesiu!
Saturday August 29th
 In the morning we had deer walking by, again! We also were entertained by playing squirrels again, so there was no shortage of wildlife. Even wildlife that you don’t want: musquitos. We had to spray generously and every two hours to prevent being attacked by tons of those critters. I even sprayed the cats a few times, didn’t want them to get lots of musquito bites in the face or something either.
In the afternoon we biked around on the campsites (Trailer Park and Beaver Glen which is way deeper into the forest) and into town. Time for some last pics and then a BBQ at our site. And again, sigh, we had deer walking by! The cats were very intriged by them 
Sunday August 30th
 We took the beautiful scenic highway out of the national park again (didn’t spot any wildlife though) and continued our way back home on the highway 2. We visited Astrid’s family in Wakaw and had a very relaxing break there. The rest of the drive back home seemed very long, we had supper at the 16 Jct. and around 8pm we finally arrived home. A long drive… but well worth it!
 album 08/26 – 08/30 motorhoming! – Prince Albert National Park (Waskesiu, SK) (180 pictures)
Trailer Park Campground, Waskesiu, Prince Albert National Park
Pull through sites (27′+ can only reserve this campground) on grass, partly very open en partly with huge pine trees. The least natural campground (Beaver Glen is in a fairly dense forest), but still gorgeous and closest to town. There is also a part though, that’s more forested and the sites (little bays) are smaller and more private. Surrounded by bushes and trees, and cabins and trees (everywhere you look in town, there are many trees…). Frequented by deer and occasionally elk and black bears. We had full hook up for $34 and a NP parks pass is needed. The Service Centre was modern enough and clean, great! I think it’s about 1 km to town, with shops, few restaurants, hotels etc. The only national park in SK, and the most beautiful one!!
Nederlandse tekst “motorhoming! – Prince Albert National Park (Waskesiu, SK)” »
I’ve finally finished making a selection out of 2000+ photos (from all of us) and uploaded them in 5 albums. You can find them here:
Ik ben eindelijk klaar met de selectie uit 2000+ foto’s (van ons allemaal) en heb ze opgeladen in 5 albums. Je vindt ze hier:
5 albums family visit Rockies / Regina 2009 (641 pictures)
And I very soon hope to upload the update for our last two camping trips, beautiful Waskesiu and relaxing Buffalo Pound!
En ik hoop heel snel de update van onze laatste twee camping trips te kunnen opladen, het mooie Waskesiu en het relaxte Buffalo Pound!
Geez, how easy is it to postpone something, when you’re already comfortable where you’re at and the work permit will be valid for quite a while longer. And when you buy a bad ass motorhome and are often gone  and when you also had family over for almost a month!  But that provincial nomination is only valid for half a year, so there was no more time to waste and yesterday we finally sent off the mother of all envelopes, the Permanent Residence application to Buffalo, NY.
I had dreaded to apply for new police certificates in Holland, it bugs me that you have to bother people over there with it (you have to apply in person in the last city you lived in in Holland, or have other people act for you on your behalf). But ok, per Fedex we sent all the forms and copies that were needed to our former neighbours and dear friends Rob and Vera, and they did the application for us at the city hall (with the usual persistance, because of course the clerk didn’t get it all right away). Thank you!
When we came back from the vacation, we received the police certificates and this week I finally made some time to read through all the guides, paperwork and sites again, print out the corrected and updated forms and make copies (just not notarized as they mention in the checklist, didn’t need that with the work permit and other applications, so we’re just taking that risk for now). Yesterday we sent it off with Fedex and it was delivered in Buffalo today!
In the next few days I’ll have another update for you, because we were gone with the motorhome again. Into the wilderness of Saskatchewan, but then by the picturesque village Waskesiu in the woods by a lake. 6 hours drive, but soooo pretty… 
Nederlandse tekst “PR application” »
We just said goodbye to our visiting family 
Since Friday, my brother’s family was here as well, we had 3 guests in the house and 3 slept in their motorhome. It was full in our little house, but it was filled with much love and fun! The boys walked to downtown, Ton and Rita biked through/around the park, we visited the beautiful Royal Saskatchewan Museum, had a Sunday brunch at Glitters (buffet diner), a wonderful supper at Bocados, already for my dad’s birthday (he’ll be 91 in a few weeks) and last night we spent at the Stephenson’s (thanks!!!). Even after almost 4 weeks together we didn’t want them to leave!!! But it’s inevitable. They all had a great time, but they will also be pleased to go back to their own homes.
Thank you so much guys for everything, we had an amazing time together!! I hope you all have a safe trip home and we’ll see ya in Skype!!
on our deck:
Royal Saskatchewan Museum:
at Bocados:
group shot on the last night, at the Stephenson’s:
Nederlandse tekst “bye family!!! ” »
Here some pictures of what we’ve done the past week, with dad and Amalia:
Hier wat foto’s van wat we de afgelopen week gedaan hebben, met pap en Amalia:
- Regina, Wascana Centre (very big urban park – erg groot stadspark)
- Regina Beach, Last Mountain Lake (30 min. from Regina)
- enjoying our deck at home – genieten op ons dek thuis
- sunset ceremony (zonsondergang ceremonie) Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Today we went to (vandaag gingen we naar) Buffalo Pound Provincial Park and Moose Jaw.
- Buffalo Pound
- bison (buffalo) herd (bison kudde) at Buffalo Pound Provincial Park
- Western Development museum, Moose Jaw
- Moose Jaw
update from the last days:
Saturday, July 18 (continued)
 After the last update we spent some time in Jasper, bought some native art at the Our Native Land store next to the laundry place. We always buy something there, but it’s tough to choose from so much great stuff. We ended up spending a bit more and took two things home, a limited print from Sue Coleman and a small shield with leather, a medicine bag, arrows and feathers attached. Back at the campground we had to change to an unserviced spot (when we made our reservations there was no electric site available anymore for this one night, and the campsite was completely full). It was a beautiful spot away from the Icefields Parkway, in a mixed spruce and birch forest. The others came to our spot to BBQ. Unfortunately we got some thundershowers (we sat underneath the awning), but an elk herd passed by our site which of course made up for the weather No big bull among them, but still impressive animals.
Sunday, July 19
 The mother of all days, as Nico calls it. On the agenda for today: the Maligne Lake Road incl. the Maligne Canyon, Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake itself. We drove to the Sixth Bridge of the canyon, where Ton and his family left their motorhome, then we took them to the beginning of the trail where the restaurant is. They hiked the trail through the canyon back to their own motorhome and joined us again after that. In the meantime we (dad, Amalia, Nico and I) walked to the First Bridge and had lunch in the restaurant. We all continued on the scenic Maligne Lake Road, slowly and watching for wildlife. We stopped at Medicine Lake to enjoy the views over the fairly full lake (which was fuller than we every saw it in the fall) as well as some deer that were right by the parking lot. At the end of the road we spent some time at Maligne Lake and Ton and Rita invited us all for supper at the restaurant there, because both their birthdays were coming up, (they had only lunch dishes, but enough to fill the stomach with ). After the meal a little wolverine was trying to eat a plastic bag outside, near a BBQ, so Ton distracted the wolverine so Nico could get rid of that plastic. We moved to the 2nd parking lot and spent some time there, because we wanted to drive back at dusk. Just when I wanted to go inside the motor home again, a deer showed up close by and we stayed to watch it and make pics, from only a few meters away. So cute!
Around 8.30 we decided to drive back, although it wasn’t getting dark yet (it would be light until past 10, but we didn’t want to be back that late). We didn’t see any animals for a long time, and we felt a bit disappointed, until we at least saw an elk along the road. At the last part we hoped to maybe see a coyote or something, and we got our hopes up when we saw a car had stopped at the side of the road. Then we saw what they saw… a black bear close to the road!! Yeehaw, finally!! But that wasn’t all. When we got close to Jasper again, we saw cars along the 16 where we’ve seen bighorn sheep before. This time they were high up on the cliffs, we saw a male with the actual big horns, females and some little ones! And at the exit to Jasper we saw an elk herd crossing the street. Wow, so many animals at the end of the trip! And that is why Nico calls this day the mother of all days
(I’ll have better pics from our video camera later on)
Monday, July 20
 It was time to temporarily say goodbye to Rita, Ton, Martijn and Sander. They continued to B.C. with their motorhome and we turned around to drive back to Regina (in 3 days). We left around 11 and stopped at the Athabasca Falls (never seen the falls this ferocious!!) as we had skipped them on our way up. We didn’t stop elsewhere on the Icefields Parkway until Saskatchewan Crossing where we had lunch again. We continued to about 10 km east of Canmore, where we stayed one night on the Bow Valley Campground in the Bow Valley Provincial Park. Beautifully located in the forest on the slopes of the Bow River, but I had hoped for slightly cleaner washrooms (the whole in the ground things and not very clean) or free showers if you already pay $34 a night for an electric site (w/water). Maybe we are spoiled with the excellent provincial campgrounds in Saskatchewan (they charge a park fee which Alberta doesn’t, but only $22 a night and they typically have better washrooms/showers).
Tuesday, July 21
We intended to drive to Maple Creek, but as we left before 9, we figured we could at least make it to Swift Current. But once we were on the prairie, where driving is like a 1000 times more relaxing than in the mountains, we made so much progress and Nico was feeling so fit, that we ended up driving all the way home!! We arrived in Regina before 9pm – 840 km on one day
So now it’s Friday and we’re relaxing at home with dad and Amalia. They’ve been troopers camping in the motorhome, but are glad to sleep in a decent bed again. Nico is working nightshift this weekend, but will be off again next week (I will work mornings), so we can make some daytrips and see more stuff in Regina then. Next week Saturday my brother and his family will join us here in Regina for their last few days in Canada. I’ll wait with putting the complete photoalbums online until we have everybody’s pictures here. To be continued!
And this weekend both Ton and Rita are celebrating their birthdays, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to them!!!
Nederlandse tekst “Jasper – prairie – home!” »
Finally an update! We didn’t have a chance to look for internet until today, so here are our adventures and a few pictures of the past few days!
Monday, July 13th
After breakfast at the hotel, we went grocery shopping at the Superstore and then Ton could get his motorhome at Canadream. The instructions and paperwork took over an hour, while some of us were waiting in our motorhome in the pouring rain. Around 4 we left for Banff, and luckily it cleared up a little bit along the way, although we still had some rain every now and then. The mountains were partly in the clouds, hopefully we can see more tomorrow. At the Tunnel Mountain campground we cooked and had supper together.
 Tuesday, July 14th
It was still raining today, although it also cleared up from time to time. We had breakfast all together in a shelter on the campground, that was great! It has two huge picnic tables that fit 8 people each, and a wood stove in the middle. After breakfast we took the bus from the campground to the centre of Banff for some walking around, shopping and a coffee. Back at the campground we prepared a BBQ. Rain or shine (both actually, and a huge rainbow), we headed to the shelter again with everything and had a great time again!
Wednesday, July 15th
 After breakfast we left our sites to visit some Banff attractions, as the weather had finally cleared up! We walked the marshland trail by the Cave and Basin site (the sulphur springs that were the origin of Banff), went up in the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain (very busy of course after the rainy days) where we had a spectacular view over Banff and the surrounding valleys and we had lunch there. From Banff we took the Bow Valley Parkway to Lake Louise, and we stopped at Johnston Canyon (Ton, Rita and the boys went to walk to the upper falls, the rest of us stayed in and near the giftshop/restaurant building). On the Parkway we saw a deer, Rita also saw a coyote. At Lake Louise Village we went shopping and settled in at the campground along the river (and the railway and the highway).
Thursday, July 16th
 First of all, happy birthday to our friend Anneke (Sanders – there are so many Anneke’s)! We didn’t mail, but we did think of her!
Today we started early and first visited Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. Everybody loved the lakes and their colours! We went back to the 1 to Yoho Park to look at the spiral tunnels (no train unfortunately) where the trains make loops (through tunnels in the mountains) to overcome the steep rise or decline of mountain. We continued to Emerald Lake to enjoy more wonderful colours and scenery, Ton’s family hiked around the lake, we left a bit earlier to go back to the campground. Finally some time for relaxation at the campsite. After barbecueing all together Nico and I strolled along the river and over the campsite for a bit.
Friday, July 17th
 Another early rise, to take the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. We stopped at Bow Lake, Peyto Lake (took the road up hill so dad could go see it too), had lunch at the Saskatchewan Crossing and visited the Icefield Centre by the Athabasca Glacier (I got a migraine so stayed in the motorhome to sleep). A little further Amalia saw a bear!! We stopped and turned, Ton was back in time to see him go up the hill, but by the time Nico and I got there, he was gone A bit later we did all see some mountain goats along the road! Beautiful animals that we hadn’t seen yet! My migraine was getting a bit better after all that adrenaline We stopped at the Sunwapta Falls and skipped the rest, for we were all tired and wanted to go to the campsite (after getting groceries in Jasper). It was a fantastic scenic drive, and dad and Amalia had the time of their lives. While travelling they alway sit at the dining table, enjoying the views from there
In the evening, Amalia had a little adventure on the campground, when she got lost after visiting the washrooms. The campground is made of loops, so you’ll easily lose your sense of direction. She asked a family in perfect English for help, and they even brought her back
Saturday, July 18
Finally a slow day. We’re at our favourite laundry/internet/coffee place in Jasper, finally time for this update! We’ll have 2 more nights here, before we part with Ton’s family until they come to Regina later on (we will drive back to Regina in 3 days from there).
Nederlandse tekst “Banff – Lake Louise – Jasper” »
For the big summer trip we’re going to the Rockies again, because this time, my family is flying in to visit us, and to see a bit more of Canada!!! We are taking my dad and his gf in our motorhome, my brother and his family rented their own motorhome. We’ll tell you all about it in our next updates!!
Friday, July 10th
The night before we decided to leave on Friday instead of Saturday. We wanted to drive all the way to Medicine Hat (5 hrs driving time) and took a break appr. in the middle, in Swift Current, where we had an early supper at Humpty’s. As usual we enjoyed the prairie sceneries and saw a coyote, antilopes, some bird of prey, a bison with a little one and a gazillion cows and a gazillion gophers In Medicine Hat we parked on the empty (except for all the RVs haha) parkinglot of a former Wal-Mart store, where we figured out what we wanted to do on Saturday and Sunday. We want to go to Drumheller on Saturday and hopefully we can find a campsite there for the next night.
Saturday, July 11th
 On our way to Drumheller I phoned the campground close to downtown and we were lucky to get one of the last spots available. After a 3 hour ride through the most flat and empty prairie you can possibly imagine, and the last part up to Drumheller through rolling hills, we fell silent when we entered the Drumheller Valley. Wow! Those badlands looked way more impressive than we had expected! Bigger and more picturesque! We turned right to drive a few km to the hoodoos, then turned around to drive to Drumheller and then follow the North Dinosaur Trail through the valley of badlands to the Horsethief Canyon Viewpoint (aaaaahhhhhhh!!!). Then we turned around again to go back to Drumheller, but on the way we stopped at the Royal Tyrrell Museum with the dinosaur skeletons and much more. If you have an RV you have to go straight to the overflow parking, but there is no such sign in the beginning, so we cruised a very full parking lot before even finding the overflow parking with a RV section. The museum was very impressive, many interpretive things and of course many fossils and skeletons, esp. of dinosaurs. At 4 we were back in Drumheller at the campsite where we parked in a pull through site with power and water, facing a hill. There is no privacy, but the campground is close to downtown, so we could walk there to see the “World’s Biggest Dinosaur” of 26m high. Nico climbed the stairs inside to look over the valley from the dino’s mouth We walked through the town a bit, but there wasn’t much going on. On our way back we had supper in a Greek restaurant, mmmmm moussaka!
Sunday, July 12th
 After a quick breakfast in Drumheller took the 9 to Calgary, passed the city on the east side to go to Okotoks, where we visited fellow Dutch emigrants Richard and Jacky and their sons. After a few hours we drove a bit more west to Black Diamond to visit Rob, Anneke and their little Ryan, another Dutch family. We had a lot of fun with both families (thanks for having us!!), but around 4 we had to leave to be at the Travelodge in time to welcome our family who flew in from Amsterdam. My 90-year-old dad and his girlfriend Amalia, my brother Ton, sister-in-law Rita and their sons Martijn and Sander. It was a great reunion after 16 months! We had supper in the restaurant and showed the motorhome to a few of them, before they all went to bed (we were staying overnight in the parking lot).
Nederlandse tekst “Drumheller and family reunion in Calgary!” »
Finally it’s time to return to Greenwater Lake Provincial Park. We went there 2 weeks after we moved to Canada – still winter so we were there in the snow and -30. We were excited to see what it would look like in the summer! After almost 4 hours (and a half hour break in Wynyard) we arrived in the park that is already part of the boreal forest. The main road looked like we expected, but the part near the beach and marina looked very different with all the trees being green now, wow!
We had made reservations, but couldn’t get the same spot for 4 days. We could only get 2 nights without services and then 2 with electricity. But for tonight they’ve been able to give us an electric site after all, on the Hilltop Campground (#39). Very private and almost level spot, but it looked kinda new with the sandy ‘walls’ as if it had just been dug out of the hill. Later on the park officer told us they had been working on some of these sites, because they used to be bi-level with stairs and for safety reasons they had to change them all to one level. There were some Canada Day celebrations in the park (ending with a trivia fire somewhere), but we didn’t do much anymore… nap-bike-bbq-dvd-bed.
 Thursday was just a gorgeous day. Sunny, warm enough, but not too hot. We had to move to our next spot, so after breakfast we left our little dugout and parked near the marina, to spend a few hours at the beautiful marina and the beach. Back at the motorhome we sat in the grass with our cats, enjoying a slushie delight (some soft ice in the middle and at the bottom of a slushie, which is sort of like crushed water ice – perfect combination!). Can life get any better? After some shopping at the park store, we went to the campground office at 2pm. We asked again if there was any chance an electric site had become available, and again we were lucky! She was able to swap some bookings so that we could go to this site (#62) and stay there for  the remaining 3 nights. Woo! And what a beautiful spot it was! No dugout The cats were entertained by bugs, squirrels and ground squirrels (similar to ‘our’ gophers) and we just relaxed for a while. After failing at making a fire again, we barbecued and went for a bike ride to the Fisherman’s Cove (resort just outside of the park) and along the lake by some lakeside houses and cabins, and stayed on the beach for an hour until the sun set.
Friday started with more clouds and chillier. But once the sun came out more, it was nice again! We relaxed at the campsite until 3 or so and then biked to the beach. We had a late lunch/early supper at the beach café, where we were entertained by a squirrel and a ground squirrel eating out of people’s hands. We biked to the Fisherman’s Cove (where we stayed the first time) to ask if they’d have the 7pm Riders game on that night (first of the new season). Back at the campsite we napped for a while and missed the first quarter. But hearing the game on our neighbour’s radio made us go still (better to watch than to listen to). We had a great time there! It felt like coming home and the owner still recognized us. 11 Kokanees and a Rider victory (28-24 against the BC Lions) later we returned to the campsite at 11.30pm! We heard we shouldn’t have to worry about bears (too busy on the campsite), but we did see a deer right where we saw a bunch back on the first trip:)
 Saturday was a fairly lazy day. We woke up way too early, went to the washrooms at 7am, decided to stay up and have breakfast. Not long after that we went back to bed and slept another 2 hours We spent the day chilling at the campsite, biking to the beach for a slurpie delight and finally managed to make a fire in the firepit, where we heated up yesterday’s bbq leftovers and made some s’mores the right way. On Sunday we had to go home again, and when we took a break at a gas station near Raymore, we ran into Nico’s co-worker Tracy who he swapped shifts with this week (she had been up north fishing)… what are the odds????
It was really great to come back to Greenwater Lake (and see how pretty it is in the summer) with it being the first place we visited right after we became Canadian residents. Visiting the Fisherman’s Cove again felt like coming home, and we know that Greenwater Lake will always have a special place in our heart (so it will be visited again)!
album 07/01 – 07/05 motorhoming! – Greenwater Lake Provincial Park (SK) (110 pictures)
Greenwater Lake Provincial Park
Beautiful sites in the forest, level, some of the multi-level ones in the hill have been dug out recently to remove the steps and make them safer, but as a result they are not very pretty right now (but the rest of the sites are!!). $17 for non-electric, $22 for electric sites, day/3 days/weekly/transferable annual Provincial Parks pass needed ($50 for 2009). Short walk/bikeride to the beach and marina, beautiful area too with beach cafe, park store (and laundry, arcade, minigolf) and cabins.
Nederlandse tekst “motorhoming! – Greenwater Lake Provincial Park, SK” »
Last week Thursday night we left after Nico got home from work. As it would be dark soon, we couldn’t drive all the way to Moose Mountain Provincial Park (Kenosee Lake), our destiny of choice this time, so we spent the night at Dyer Straits, a campground near White City. It was a simple campground, small sites and hardly any privacy, and right at the Trans Canadian Highway, but at least we were away from the city and camping. Unfortunately it rained a bit, so we sat inside. In the middle of the night we woke up from the sudden howling and barking of a bunch of coyotes close by. Exciting (hey we’re city slickers…)! In the morning it was windy but sunny and after having some sandwiches outside, we continued our travel east.
 The scenery on the Trans Canadian Highway (the 1) had no surprises, the usual slightly rolling hills, farmland and dugouts. We had to turn south in Whitewood, where we took a lunchbreak at the gas station. Around 2pm we arrived at Moose Mountain. It’s a gorgeous forested area with lots of lakes, a very untypical prairie landscape. But since it’s on an elevated plateau (900m above sealevel) it is cooler and gets more precipitation than the surrounding prairie, hence making forest possible. We stopped at the park store for some groceries (very complete store with groceries, camping stuff and some souvenirs) and ended up at a beautiful spot on Fish Creek Campground (in the forest and very level). As I settled in and stayed with the cats who enjoyed themselves outside, Nico went for a little bike ride along Kenosee Lake south of the campground. At supper time, Nico’s attempts to get a fire going unfortunately failed, the wood would only smoke a lot. Bummed out about that, we didn’t feel like getting the BBQ going either, threw some burgers in a skillet on the stove and had excellent burger sandwiches and salad instead. Later on we walked around on the campground and noticed that they mixed all sorts of sites in the lanes, both in size and shape (most you have to back in, some are more like a bay). I can be brief about the sizes and shapes of the RVs though: huge! Most of them are ginormous fifth wheels or trailers with slide-outs that made our motorhome look small and there were just a few smaller units. At sunset we walked the Lakeview trail to see the sun set over Little Kenosee Lake (NW of the campground). But we couldn’t even get that right, the sun was already gone. Still a nice view though!
 After an early night (and good night’s sleep) we woke up fairly early and by 8.30am we were on our bikes riding around in the park. It was going to be a hot day, but this early it was still really nice!! We tried the White Deer Trail into the forest, but that was covered with mulch (wood and bark chips) which made it really hard to bike on and soon it was so muddy we couldn’t continue. We turned around and went back to the main road and to the beach. Gorgeous! At the Kenosee Inn “above” the beach we had a fantastic breakfast (yummy buffet!) with a stunning view over the lake and good music (Led Zeppelin, Rush etc) in the background. Wow!
For hours we just relaxed at our campsite until we went for another bike ride at 4. We wanted to see what the road further west would be like, but after a short while it turned into a dirt road and only seemed to be the entrance to a network of trails for off-the-road vehicles in the summer or snowmobiles and cross country skiing in the winter. We went to Little Kenosee Lake by the stables and Kenosee Lake close to the campground, then we returned to our site to BBQ and relax again (much needed after the bike ride in the rolling hills!!!).
Sunday morning we couldn’t stop thinking about that breakfast buffet at the Kenosee Inn, so we biked there again! It was windy, but still warm and partly sunny. Perfect ending of this camping trip (we’ll conveniently forget about returning to Regina in rain)
album 06/18 – 06/21 motorhoming! – Moose Mountain Provincial Park (Kenosee Lake, SK) (110 pictures)
Dyer Straits campground
Private campground near White City, grassy with few bushes and trees, right by the Highway 1, surrounded by farmland. Small sites with picnic table and firepit, toiletbuilding ok but could use some tlc, $18 for electric/water site. Playground, wifi.
Moose Mountain Provincial Park campgrounds
Beautiful campgrounds in the forest, perfect level sites with firepit/bbq and picnic tables, situated between Kenosee and Little Kenosee Lakes. Our electric site was $22, day/3 days/weekly/transferable annual Provincial Parks pass needed ($50 for 2009). It’s a few kms back to the beach, Kenosee Inn, mini-golf, and the golf-course and more amenities in the village of Kenosee Lake.
Nederlandse tekst “motorhoming! – Moose Mountain Provincial Park (Kenosee Lake, SK)” »
|
welcome! We are Nico and Marlies Wobben and in February 2008 we moved from the Netherlands to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada on work permits. Nico is an RN at the General Hospital and I (Marlies) am an administrator at Canada Life. And we have 3 cats!
Wij zijn Nico en Marlies Wobben en in februari 2008 zijn we verhuisd van Nederland naar Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada op werkvergunningen! Nico is verpleegkundige in het General Hospital en ik (Marlies) ben administrator bij Canada Life. En we hebben 3 katten!
gallery
most recent album:
6 random images 1985-2009!
|
All year ‘everybody’ kept telling us that we should go up north to Waskesiu. So finally we did! It’s about 6 hrs for us with the motorhome, plus we stopped by the Highway 16 Jct for gas and to stretch our legs, and we very briefly visited Caroline in Prince Albert. Close to 8pm we arrived in Waskesiu, just before dusk. We immediately fell in love. People kept saying how beautiful it is up here, but nobody said it was THIS beautiful! Even the campground for long trailers that seemed like a parking lot on Google Earth with only few trees is gorgeous! Some parts are very open, but we picked a spot between huge pine trees and bordering trees and bushes. At dusk we walked to the lake, just in time for some past-sunset pics. Stunning colours!!! We walked to town along the lakeside trail in front of gorgeous cabins, watching carefully for wildlife (elk and black bears frequent the area) to avoid surprise encounters. We visited the grocery store and walked back over the main road. We had to cross a big part of the Trailer Park campground to our spot, and it was inevitable to walk through some dark areas. We kept talking to let possible wildlife know we were there, but still we almost literally bumped into an elk in that darkest part!! She was only a few metres away when I spotted her on the left side of the path, so I startled and back away behind a picnic table on the right side. But she wasn’t bothered by us, so she kept grazing and we walked around her to go to our own motorhome without any more surprises. Not the smartest move to walk around after dark, but it was worth the hike after 6 hrs of driving 
Partly cloudy and not as warm as it was supposed to be, but still nice to bike to town after breakfast. We again took the trail in front of the beachfront cabins (wow…) and had a latte at the Beach House. In the afternoon we chilled at the campside. We were allowed to move to a more forested part of the campground that you could only reserve for RVs up to 27′, if we’d see a place we’d think we’d fit in. It was a beautiful part, and we should fit in several of those spots, but we’re happy at the more open part too (more to see I guess), so we’re staying put. In the bushes by our motorhome I already spotted a deer today!
We walked to the store by the cabin park on the main road for some fresh rolls for breakfast and hung out at the campsite, where we saw deer walk by again. Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a drive. We took the route along the north side of the lake, the Kingsmere Road. A well maintained gravel road where you can often see wildlife, but we didn’t see any (maybe because it was the middle of the day). Still a beautiful drive though! We stopped by the Waskesiu River, the Waskesiu Marina and the Hanging Heart Marina.
In the morning we had deer walking by, again! We also were entertained by playing squirrels again, so there was no shortage of wildlife. Even wildlife that you don’t want: musquitos. We had to spray generously and every two hours to prevent being attacked by tons of those critters. I even sprayed the cats a few times, didn’t want them to get lots of musquito bites in the face or something either.
We took the beautiful scenic highway out of the national park again (didn’t spot any wildlife though) and continued our way back home on the highway 2. We visited Astrid’s family in Wakaw and had a very relaxing break there. The rest of the drive back home seemed very long, we had supper at the 16 Jct. and around 8pm we finally arrived home. A long drive… but well worth it!
recent comments