When you plan a trip, it’s always hard to imagine conditions different from the ones in which you pack and plan. When you’re heading North into the middle of Canada, you don’t necessarily expect that it will be hotter than home, and it’s easy to forget about the mosquitos. Heat and mosquitos have both made sure we won’t forget them again! But despite some “type 2 fun” we have had a great start to our adventures.

After my last check-in, we had a great night with family in Whitefish. Their amazing house is at the top of a hill in the woods, and there’s a flat site for a future house, where we were able to park for the night. Lovely, safe, middle of the woods… an excellent night’s sleep.

We had another long day of driving on Friday. We passed by the south edge of Glacier National Park, which was absolutely a beautiful drive (definitely on the list to return at another time), then passed into the prairies. What a change of scenery! We crossed the Canadian border with very little fanfare, but the Canadian customs agent was glad to see that we had a spreadsheet of where we will be staying, so that’s a win for organization and planning.

After many hours, we arrived in Val Marie, where we were just in time to check in with the ranger for Grasslands National Park. We got maps and suggestions, and bought tickets for an astronomy event happening that night, and headed for Frenchman Valley Campground, in the West Block of the park. Turns out all of Saskatchewan is in the midst of a major heatwave, and their unusually wet winter means the mosquitos are numerous and voracious. The astronomy event was still amazing. Grasslands is a dark sky reserve and one of the darkest places in this part of North America. Park employees and amateur astronomers set up telescopes and we got to see several star clusters, the Andromeda galaxy, and Capella (otherwise known as the party star for its flashing colors when viewed through the telescope… even if I just made up that name).

We spent the morning exploring mostly from the van, bird watching and prairie dog watching. Prairie dogs are kind of the best and vital for many species in this environment. We also saw a burrowing owl, which is a small owl that lives in abandoned prairie dog holes.

The prairies are beautiful, though often overlooked as a landscape. The more you look, the more you see.

It was another long-ish drive from the West Block of the park to the East Block– and we spent most of it on small two-lane roads, with lots of farms and just a few small towns. And very few other cars, which was nice as we got used to driving the van on narrow, bumpy roads. When we arrived, we spent the evening driving the Badlands parkway, with beautiful views and the iconic “red chairs” that can be found throughout Canada. These adirondack chairs are placed in “peaceful, breathtaking locations from coast to coast to coast.” We enjoyed an evening sit, at least until the mosquitos came out and found us. Then a breathtaking sunset as we found our way back to the campground.

Since we left Grasslands, we visited the town of Moose Jaw so we could see Mac the Moose, then we spent the night in a Harvest Host location in Regina. District Brewing was a welcoming spot, with good drinks and good food, but it was so hot that we ended up spending the afternoon in a city pool (best $15 I’ve ever spent) and went to see a movie in the evening (the other best $20 I’ve spent). It was a GREAT, classic mall movie theater. The movie was okay, but the air conditioning was amazing.

Despite being hot and itchy, we’re having a great time and seeing so much new-to-us territory. Onward toward the East, and hopefully cooler weather soon!