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Waskesiu

June 13, 2007 by Wendy Cooper

We spent the last couple of days in beautiful Prince Albert National Park at Waskesiu. For those of you who have never been to Waskesiu, it is a resort town a couple hours north of Saskatoon, through the city of Prince Albert. I packed the car on Sunday while Jordon was at work and we left early Monday morning and drove through rain, rain, and some pouring rain. I expected a couple of days in the cabin. We took the direct path into Waskesiu and once we got into the park gates, Jordon gave him the You Are in Black Bear Country brochure and designated Mark as the chief bear watcher.

Once we got into the township, we checked into the cabin. Our cabin was a B cabin at the Armstrong Hillcrest cabins. It is a B based on size and fits a small family like us quite comfortably. It is one of the original cabins there and was before they had plumbing so the toilet and bathroom sink have been added on in a small bathroom to the outside of the building while the shower is in one of the bedrooms. The first time Jordon and I stayed there, he was paranoid about me latching the bathroom door when I walked out. He said the last thing he wanted to meet was a racoon while going to the bathroom.

The add-on bathroom

After we got settled, we made sure we had some jackets and hats on and wandered downtown. Now there are two Waskesius. One that exists during the week before school gets out at the end of June. It is quiet, friendly, and you are more likely to see a moose than traffic. One July 1 gets there, it gets a lot busier and insane on the weekends. That’s why we prefer the weekdays. It was really quiet and we ended up at Wishing Well Gift Store where Jordon bought me a hemp bracelet and Mark got a couple of toys.

After shopping, browsing, and taking some photos, we ended up at the Beach House for some ice cream. About that time the rain stopped and we thought it was going to get really nice out. As we went back to the cabin, it started to pour down but you could still see blue skies in other areas of the sky.

After the rain did it’s best, it turned beautiful out. When we got into the Park, they gave us a historic driving tour. Since we had been there the last time, Parks Canada has torn out the weir on the Waskesiu River so we drove there and walked around. Mark just wanted to run and run but around there, the shallow rapids are a natural bear fishing area so we had to keep him under wraps and closer to us. As Jordon said, “Feel free to make a lot of noise but stay close to us.” There used to be a weir there but recently the park created a more natural solution to allow the fish to swim upstream back to the lake.

Mark loved the breakwater and he loved walking along the top of a wet and slippery breakwater which made me constantly nervous. Both Jordon and I can swim but that doesn’t mean that we really wanted to drive into cold water to get him if he falls in.

Monday evening Jordon dared Mark to run into the water which Mark joyfully did. Later on Jordon tossed Mark into the water which Mark wasn’t so thrilled with.

We went home, got Mark a hot shower, ate some dinner and then back out for a walk as the sun was setting. The photos were stunning.

We finally settled down and got some sleep and despite waking up in the middle of the night to moose standing outside our window, we had a pretty good sleep. After another couple of walks and breakfast, we slowly made our way home via Highway 263 through Emma and Christopher Lake taking advantage of the lookouts and some trails and got home around dinner time last night.