Moving on - Waskesiu Lake, Canada
Waskesiu Lake, Canada
Our visit to Weyakwin was ending and it was time to get the coach ready to roll. Netty cleaned the windows and Doug collapsed the expanded sides. Soon we headed for the town of Waskesiu in the Prince Albert National Park.
We stopped for lunch LT's and to park the motorhome. The menu offered a combination of Asian and American fare. Since it was the only place around for miles, we were lucky that it was clean and the food tasty. Fully sated, we unhooked the car and went exploring.
We drove through the heavily forested areas and turned off to visit the Elk Ridge Resort. The resort is a combination of hotel, cabins and large permanent homes. The hotel's style is rustic but elegant with a beautiful view of both the golf courses and the forest. We drove around the property to see the homes. The few that were for sale were in the $800,000 range. The resort is a favorite for many people from Alberta as well as people from SK.
Our next adventure was The Prince Albert National Forest and the townsite of Waskesiu. This spectacular area included boreal forests, Aspen grasslands and a varied terrain that gives life to many animals. The warning sign read, " Stay at least three bus lengths away from deer, elk, moose and bison; ten bus lengths away from bears." We didn't spot the critters, but we would have obeyed the signs! We arrived at the busy resort complete with restaurants, beaches, shoppes, golf courses and historic buildings. Fishing is available in many of 1,500 lakes and streams.
Grey Owl, born Archibald Belany in Hastings England, arrived in the wilderness around 1906.
He lived with different First Nation tribes and learned the languages and way of life. He made pets out of beavers, Jellyroll and Rawhide. He wrote and lectured about the animals and they were later made world famous through films.
In 1930, Archie adopts the name Grey Owl. He is hired by the Canadian Parks Service as "caretaker of the animals." He moves his family to a cabin located on Lake Ajawaan some 40 km north of the current village of Waskesiu. It is the favorite destination of many hikers. A replica of the one-room cabin, compete with open beaver dam entrance is located in the village. The pet beavers would come and go at will.
The park opened in 1928 and campers resided in tent shacks. These tent shacks featured wooden sides and canvas tops. These shack tents had no running water or sewer until 1998. They had to be disassembled before winter and stored in a central location until spring. These tent shacks became more and more elaborate as the years passed. Now small permanent cabins reside on the spots that once held the shack tents.
Today the park serves as a major recreation area with heritage facilities that strive to "preserve the pictorial, physical and oral history of Waskesiu and the Prince Albert National Park with artifacts exclusive to the area."
We arrived home, unloaded the motorhome and collapsed from an exhilarating adventure.