Our night in Val Marie at ‘The Convent’ was a sleep down memory lane.  We had stayed here 17 years ago soon after it opened and enjoyed discussions with the owners who are now trying to sell the B&B. Breakfast around the large table supplied both sustenance and conversation with other guests from Yorkton and Toronto. We then went on a 5 km. walk over the Grasslands revealing an abundance of prairie flowers, constant wind, birds, Native effigies, lichen covered rocks and 360 degree vistas.

 

Then it was back to Val Marie for a coffee and on to Shaunavon for a visit with a friend, Joanne from Cathy’s connections with the Trans Canada Trail. We were about to go out for supper when the power went out so we found a burger truck that had it's own power plant. The burger was actually quite delicious.

Monday started out with another great breakfast and long conversation with Don at the Country Flavor B&B.  We headed off on a traveling day to explore somewhere between two and three hundred local museums.  Here I had the rare chance for another reminder of how old I am by standing amongst the artifacts of my childhood and as other visitors walked by they would comment on the realistic looking bald oldtimer. “Strange he doesn’t wear a hat, they nearly all did back then”, I heard one visitor remark.

This was actually a great museum in Willow Bunch describing the local community with an emphasis on the sad life of Edouard Beaupreé.  He was one of 12 children and grew to 8’3” high as a result of a pituitary gland tumor. This was in the late 1800’s and as his family was extremely poor he ended up as feature in travelling shows and had a horrible life.

Then we went to the St. Victor’s Petroglyphs to explore this Saskatchewan phenomenon.  It will require another visit to really appreciate the rock drawings as they are fenced off and best seen with a guide at night and in the rain (three strikes against us).

I’m sure you can see the face on the rock surface.

  Our next stop was Assiniboine, where a real bakery with real cinnamon buns and real coffee was open and ready to take our money. Lots of roads off into the horizon added to the driving beauty.

From there we decided to head for the East Block of Grasslands National Park.  This turned out to be the most delightful, engaging and in many ways spiritual part of the trip.  Parks Canada has put some money into a centre at this location with lovely picnic, camping and toilet facilities.   

 

Not as good as Pat and Linda's at Twin Oaks but good.

The Park Interpreter was full of information about the possibilities and convinced us it was a great night to camp overnight.  We went for a long walk over soft native prairie grass, busting with fresh blossoms from all the recent rain.

 

The mosquitoes were in a league of their own, trying to see if people would actually go crazy with their needle point accuracy in capillary puncture. 

Here is where we put our tent looking over the unspoiled prairie grasses.

I was in heaven snapping birds and scenery, a few of which follow.

 

Common Nighthawk flying.

Common Nighthawk

Muskrat

Killdeer

Cedar Waxwing

 The lichen on the rocks here is like none I have seen before.  It is a beautiful rusty red color.

I had a few minutes before breakfast to look for birds around the farm yard of our B&B.  A Baltimore Oriole posed with his magnificent orange morning coat on.

 

We then headed out to meet up with Trish our tour guide for the day.  Cathy had arranged this tour and it turned out to be the best value around.  Trish is a local rancher bursting with history of the area and access to spots behind locked gates that encourage the average tourist to think twice about trespassing.

This is a highly recommended tour.  If you ever get to this part of Saskatchewan be sure to sign up.  You get incredible views of this massive land of sky and Butte.

Our first stop was to view the massive dragline scooping coal to feed the ever hungry power plant needed so I can write this blog.

 

On our way to Castle Butte we slowed down to avoid hitting local tourists on the side of the road.  To my surprise it was a woodturning friend, Rod Peterson and his wife Hazel, on a multi-week tour of the area.

Climbing Castle Butte was not as difficult as standing in the gale force winds on top of the Butte.

After leaving Castle Butte we came across a fashion show where the hair-dos were done up to reflect the pointy peaks of the local hills.

Photo by Cathy

We drove on to The Burgess Ranch where Tammy told us tale after tale of the history from the turn of the century when this area was rife with horse thieves, extortion schemes and cross boarder skullduggery. She had done a lot of research and filled in the stories with charcoal sketches she had done of the many men involved. We ate our boxed lunch as we listened to history come alive.

Tammy the story teller and Cathy

On Tammy's gate

On our way into the Giles Ranch a family of Killdeer were urging us to leave their babies alone.  We spied four little ones trying for all the world to look like the surrounding grass. 

On Alert

Time to fake an  injury

Young Killdeer just able to walk, stumbling on the grass.

Passing through the gate to the Giles Ranch we soon approached within a few hundred meters of the U.S. boarder constantly on the lookout for horse thieves. The other side of this fence is U.S. territory.

 

The high hill you see here was a lookout post where theives could look at the progress of posses hunting for them. The stories really made you believe in the concept of the “Wild West”.

In former times the thieves would hide out in “Sam Kelly’s Caves” and have horses in another cave close by. 

Cathy standing in the original 'Man Cave' where Sam Kelly and his cohorts hid from the law.

We finished the tour by viewing a number of native Effigy sites and headed back to Coronach.

As we reflected on the day and the unrelenting wind a huge business opportunity seemed so obvious I can’t understand why nobody has stepped in. The sale of Canadian Flags would be a gold mine in this place.

Flag up one hour

Flag up two hours

Flag up one day

Back in Coronach we had a coffee at the local Mini Mart and discussed where to eat with the lady running the store.  She recommended Charlie's as it was cleaner than the other restaurant.  We had quite a nice 'Lasagna special' put on for Father's Day. A trip to the washroom soon explained why it was so clean. 

You could turn on those taps and flush that urinal in a matter of seconds. A ball valve on a half inch, full bore pressurized copper pipe.  Now that's cleaning. 

We finished supper and headed back to our B&B.  I had a few minutes to look for birds and had these to show for my efforts.  This is a great place to go birding.

Great Horned Owl with young (on right)

Great Horned Owl Adult

Great Horned Owl young.

Common Grackle

Wildon's Snipe