Manitoba to Northern Saskatchewan

 

A glimpse of any wildlife makes my day. This distant little bear was following his Mother and siblings across the road in front of two cars. They have plenty of seasonal berries to eat at the moment but they need to fatten up in order to survive the winter hibernation.

The day after this picture was taken Stephen was put off visiting the washrooms in the campsite as there was a bear hanging around outside!

An inquisitive white tailed deer.

This is the world's largest Tee pee! 70 feet high. That takes a lot of covering.

Many of the 1000's of lakes in this region are only accessed by float plane, motor boat or canoe. We stayed at Jan Lake and met a lovely couple who took us for a boat trip as the sun was going down. They have 30 miles of lake system to enjoy.

We headed further into Northern Saskatchewan visiting the town of La Ronge and the legendary shop, Robertson's Trading Post, the one stop shop for anglers and hunters. You can buy anything from baked beans to a bear trap, fashion to hand made clothes and moccasins and of course trade in your pelts.

After meeting some canoeists in the pretty Nutpoint campsite just outside La Ronge, we were enticed yet further north up the dirt road to Stanley Mission, a Cree Indian settlement, to watch a canoe race. The beautiful Churchill river here makes it 5th in the 'best spot to canoe in Canada', (so we were told).
The race was 45 minutes of flat out paddling round an island and back twice!

The church is Saskatchewan's oldest building constructed from hardwood logs cut by aboriginals in 1860.
It is only accessible by boat.

 

Prince Albert Provincial Park

Returning south to Prince Albert National Park we met this Elk and young at the side of the road whilst  walking.

Saskatoon

We are now in Saskatoon, now the largest city in Saskatchewan, where the landscape has changed from lakes and forests to arable farmland and prairie. Coyote country. We saw a large one yesterday brazenly checking out an empty campsite. (No picture unfortunately.)