You cycle through a forest of sweet-scented aspen and evergreen in Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert National Park, home to plains bison, elk, black bear, lynx and 200 species of birds. You can almost hear the beat of ancient drums where archaeological digs reveal 8,000-year-old Aboriginal history. There’s the faint sound of a timber wolf howling. A rush of flapping white fills the sky as something startles the colony of magnificent pelicans.
Contemplate the “big picture” as you gaze at endless open skies and fields of golden wheat while driving through the arable farmland that makes up a third of the province. Elsewhere you can traipse deep into boreal forests that open onto rivers, grasslands and lakes. Angle for scrappy northern pike, tasty walleye and Arctic grayling, or go fly-fishing for prized brook trout. In 2009, a world record rainbow trout was reeled in at Lake Diefenbaker that weighed a whopping 48lb.
Experience a prairie twist on continental cuisine in Regina. Stroll by the 350,000 hand-planted trees that help turn the landscape into a prairie oasis. Visit Wascana Centre, one of the world’s largest urban parks. In Moose Jaw, explore the tunnels under the street where notorious gangster and bootlegger Al Capone once hid. Shop the trendy Broadway fashion district in Saskatoon and admire 5,000 works of fine art by Canadian artists at Mendel Art Gallery. Don’t go home without sampling a piece of famous saskatoon berry pie or finding out at the RCMP Heritage Centre why the Mounties always get their man.
