Ask a travel writer to identify their favorite travel destination and many will describe azure-blue waters of a tropical beach, but two of Canada’s best travel writers, Jenn Smith Nelson and Doug O’Neill, make the case for a pair of oft-overlooked provinces in their new book, 110 Nature Hot Spots in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
With inspiring quotes (John Muir’s“Keep close to Nature’s Heart”) and vivid photos that will have you saying, “That’s in Canada?”, this book gives you a reason to visit Canada’s center. Smith Nelson and O’Neill pepper the pages with surprising facts (Saskatchewan has the world’s most northerly sand dunes), reasons they recommend a visit (60,000 beluga whales in Churchill), access methods, and facilities.
How well do you know Canadian geography?
If you’ve visited Canada’s prairies and limited your stops to Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park or Riding Mountain National Park, you’ll be drawn to names like Wildcat Hill Provincial Park, Creighton Limestone Crevices, or Caribou River Provincial Wilderness Park.
You might be surprised to discover there’s a marl lake called “Manitoba’s Caribbean” because of the blue colour or that there’s a preponderance of wolverines near the Manitoba/Ontario border in Opasquia Provincial Park. With 110 places, many of them undiscovered by tourists, you’ll have new reasons to visit Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
So many choices, so little time
The biggest problem with this book is the abundance of information. After reading several sections, I realized I was twenty years too old to have enough vacation time left to see everything described. Fortunately, Smith Nelson and O’Neill have added special interest sections grouped by activity. For Manitoba, sites that appeal to birdwatchers, hikers, paddlers and waterfall aficionados are listed together. The Saskatchewan special interest pages highlight spaces with bird watching, common and unique animal species, paddling, sky viewing and waterfalls offering a quick way to zero in on possible destinations.
Where to read more
If you’re ready to explore some of Canada’s lesser-known wild places 110 Nature Hot Spots in Manitoba and Saskatchewan is published by Firefly Books www.fireflybooks.com Its also available on Amazon.ca or at your favorite bookstore.
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Me either! I only realized how important Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs are when I met John Laux of Nebraska Game and Parks Commission while on a media trip. These little creatures build towns of linked tunnels – the largest town ever found covered 65,000 square kilometers! Early explorer Capt. Lewis described them as “barking squirrels”, while Clark called them a “ground rat”. They caught and ate one of the prairie sentinels, but it never became a diet staple. When Lewis and Clark ordered their men to flush out more rodents with water, the men hauled water all day and succeeded in catching only one prairie dog – it was put in a cage and made a pet!
When I was young you had to suffer to camp. Canvas tents leaked if you touched them when wet, air mattresses deflated overnight, and supper was whatever you could cook over a smoky fire in the rain. Things improved with the invention of Gore-Tex and affordable recreational vehicles (RVs), but it can be a hassle to pull a RV and wrestle it into a camping site. A creative-thinking entrepreneur, Darci Schepansky, has reinvented the camping experience by delivering rental RVs to any campground in the Waskesiu region of northern Saskatchewan.
picnic table, and flowers by the door before you arrive. You don’t need to buy an RV, own a large vehicle or worry about parking. Explaining her motivation for starting Retro RV, Darci says, “I wanted a business that would let me spend time with my kids.” Her kids enjoy visiting provincial parks while Mom makes money. As the name implies, some of the rental units are vintage, but there is nothing old-fashioned about this recreational reinvention! To learn more go to