Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan

We are back in Canada and happy to be here at Grasslands National Park.  The prairies are beautiful in the fall – different from the green prairies in June but just as beautiful.  We are camped at a farm beside the park, right on the prairie with a full moon lighting the night sky – very special.  

full moon just after sunset

sunset over the farm's pond 

We went for a couple of walks this afternoon, each  about 2 km.  One, the River Walk, was across the prairie on a mown path to the edge of the meandering Frenchman River.  Saw 4 deer on that walk.  They seem more precious when we see them bounding across the prairie than when we see them eating our veggie garden at home!  The second walk was more of a hike, up Eagle Butte with splendid views for miles around.  On that hike we saw 5 deer – or at least 5 heads or sets of ears spying on us from behind a little rise.  Here at the farm, while watching the sunset over the prairie, we saw muskrat, an adult and two young, swimming in the pond.  There is also an active badger who dug a new hole by the shed two days ago but we haven’t seen him.  I would love to see my first badger.  Tomorrow we will drive the eco tour road through the park and hope to see a prairie dog town, bison and pronghorn antelope.

Three Sisters Butte across the prairie

Shon by Frenchman River meander. Notice how high the riverbank is on the far side of the meander.

We have had lovely sunny warm fall weather for the last few days – 25C today.  We really appreciated the  breeze this afternoon on our walks!

Hay bales awaiting pick-up.  A rancher in his truck was on the field picking them up but could only take 5 at a time.  He has a large task ahead of him!!

Two days ago, we went for a drive through a national wildlife refuge in Montana and saw a pelican colony and other wetland birds, including two tundra swans.  Fall migration is in full swing and we have seen some large flocks of geese heading south.  We have also seen many, many meadowlarks, both here and in Montana.  I am happy to see the species doing so well as we don’t see them very often anymore in the Vernon area.

Another common sight on the prairies is field after field of large round hay bales – hundreds and hundreds of them waiting to be picked up and stored for winter.  We have also seen farms with large collections of both last year’s and this year’s hay bales, what looks like massive oversupply to us but perhaps they need that much.