Driving our RV across Manitoba, we scouted the highways north to south and east to west and saw pretty countryside changing to prairie and farm land with huge sky beautifully reflected in all the many lakes. It is a picturesque drive and almost totally flat….like Kansas with more trees and lakes. We could put in a long day because it isn’t dark in summer until nearly midnight in the upper regions of the province.
Our first destination was Winnipeg, the bustling capital city. On our first morning there we selected Assiniboinne Park, a picturesque park designed by the architect who laid out New York Central Park. It was fun watching moms with strollers, joggers, and many school groups were playing soccer and on school trips to the wonderful Winnipeg Zoo here. We strolled along cobble stone and natural bark pathways of the colorful formal English Garden, exquisite each season of the year beneath huge trees. We also enjoyed the large Sculpture Garden and the Wol Sculpture Center. Toddlers feeding the ducks in the clean and peaceful pond. We passed the Lyric Band Shell and Theater. The park has just celebrated its 100th anniversary and the original Pavilion is beautifully restored. We enjoyed two floors of incredible Canadian art in the free galleries upstairs.
Winnipeg claims to have so many restaurants that you could eat in a different one three meals a day for two years and never try them all….Is it true? Who knows! But we chose what surely must be the very best: Tavern In The Park, where we dined in the all glass sun-room overlooking the park. Our food was excellent and as pretty as it was delicious! The restaurant is open 11:30 – 2:30 and 5:30 – 9:30PM. Reservations are recommended.
Next we moved downtown to spend some delightful hours at the Manitoba Art Museum enjoying the collections and especially the Retrospective on Comics Value as Art. We were fortunate to be in Winnipeg on Aboriginal Day. For the evening we moved to the vast center of evening events at The Forks, where the Red River and the Assiniboinne Rivers meet. What a well-planned place for all the after-work sports fun. It seemed the whole city had turned out on bicycles, skates, or with jogging shoes or balls to play for free family fun. We had expected the Aaboriginal Celebration to be an Indian PowWow, as we had seen in Oklahoma, but instead it was a pop band concert with all modern native families in jeans and tee shirts listening to the music in the bandshell while lounging on blankets and sharing picnics. The handmade items and other trinkets for sale in the stalls were varied. The Forks Park has numerous restaurants and the view of St. Boniface Cathedral and College across the new bridge is so pretty. We drove around the St. Boniface area, which is the old French Quarter and now has many eclectic restaurants, shops, and galleries.
HECLA PROVENCIAL PARK
We next headed up Highway 8 stopping at Riverton, a small community started by Icelandic and Ukranian settlers. We drove all afternoon beside Lake Winnipeg, the 10th largest fresh water lake in the world. It was a gorgeous drive with swamps of tall grass, hundreds of birds, ducks, and geese. The fins, which are like many smaller lakes were all around us and everywhere the brilliant blue sky was reflected in all the waters, making a big sky appear even larger!. Absolutely beautiful, placid green and blue, with fluffy clouds above and reflected below…so peaceful.
We stopped at Hecla Provincial Park, really lovely with a light house over 100 years old. We took photos and had dessert in the little bar of the old Inn. The rentals in this area are perfect for people who want to stay on the water. A perfectly exquisite area! We drove westward on Highway 68 where we stopped for the night at Ste. Rose du Lac, a tiny town with a free RV park. The park is beside the little church and the river. The local residents built a huge rock shrine to Mary on the 100th anniversary of the miracle at Lourdes. It is really stunning and in keeping with the terrain, the way shrines should be. The river that runs behind it is good for fishing.
RIDING MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK AND BIOSPHERE
We drove to Riding Mountain National Park and Biosphere and checked into the pretty Wasagaming Campground. There are many large trees in the grassy, wide sites with full plug-ins. The park is $33 a night for hook-ups plus $7 a day per person for day use fee. You can purchase a day park pass (Family $125 for the whole year for all Canadian National Parks, but we still have to pay camping fees.) There are many different terrains of campgrounds here from which to choose, and you can get permits for wilderness camping. Because it is a protected biosphere the land remains natural with animals protected and no spraying for insects is done. For this reason we selected a campsite away from the underbrushs areas.
Each of the major National Parks in Canada has a small village in the center, with restaurants, gift shops, groceries, gas, etc., and rental properties for sleeping overnight or longer stays. Here it is the town of Clear Lake, where the Visitor Center is. We loved walking the paved pathways along the lake beneath tall trees, and there were plenty of benches to sit and enjoy watching the boats and people on the lake. It is a really gorgeous resort area, built by the Workers’ Relief Program in 1930’s.
At the excellent Visitor Center a natural history museum shows many of the wild animals indigenous to Manitoba. The park has some of the largest black bears and moose in Canada. We watched a fascinating film about black bears and learned they have usually two cubs every two years. They mate in July but the egg is not implanted until two months later. They are not true hibernators but sleep for several months in the winter when their respiration is lowered and they never go to the bathroom until they emerge in spring. The babies are born as small as a chipmunk with no fur in February, and by the time they emerge from the cave in April they are playful and are the size of cats. They nurse for five months and follow the mom and live with her for two winters, learning the way of bears and how to survive on their own after that.
Black bears here usually don’t bother people, but we are reminded they are still wild and not to be approached or trusted. We saw a grey fox along the road and then drove to see the wild bison herd, a grand adventure for a rainy day. We actually found several bulls. There were only 100 bison in the 1880’s and now the number has increased to 40,000 across Canada. Bear population in that time has decreased from 500,000 to about 250,000. We were amazed to watch a great grey owl fly in front of us several times, with a wing span of over 3 feet. We tried a hike but the mosquitoes in the swampy area we had inadvertently selected were terrible, so we abandoned it. We watched an excellent movie about Grey Owl, who saved the beaver from extinction in Canada, helping make Canada aware of protecting the wilderness and all the animals. In the early 1900’s this hero, a white man from England, chose to live as an Ojibwa Indian from age 17 until his death many decades later.
We had a long drive to the east end of the park where there is a large escarpment cliff of shale, which creates some challenging hikes from top or bottom. We had intended to take the shortest hike, about 6 km. However, when we started out we realized after 30 minutes of hiking that it was straight up and only slippery mud because of the wet season just ending. We abandoned this hike after an hour. We drove toe the suggested easy hike called Burls and Bittersweet Trail. It was easy 2 km with a little guide to make you look for things in nature and to create interest in an otherwise rather boring trail. We made the loop but the mosquitoes and mud were terrible! Hiking here is not our cup of tea, at least at this time of year. While driving back we saw a mother bear and two cubs crossing the road! We returned to wander around the pretty town with interesting shops and to get email at the coffee shop.
Real Travel Adventures 