Mysask411 Road Trip: South Central Saskatchewan
Time flies when you’re having fun. This well used expression is sure true in the case of our Mysask411 road trip as we enter the last month of travel! We’re wrapping up our trip with a tour through south central Saskatchewan. Fingers crossed the weather holds out and we can end our road trip with nothing but a phone full of great photos.
Castle Butte and The Big Muddy Badlands
First up is Castle Butte in the Big Muddy Badlands. Castle Butte is another relic from the Ice Age, standing 60 m tall with a circumference of 0.5 km. If you’ve traveled with us on our last three road trips you will have noticed a theme. Many of the unique places we’ve visited exist because of ice and rock shifting thousands of years ago – very cool! Jumping back to Castle Butte, the public is free to visit from June 1 to November 1 annually. If you are looking for a more structured tour there are a couple to choose from and details can be found on the Tourism Saskatchewan’s site. After your adventure in the Big Muddy you’re gonna need some nourishment. Head west to Coronach and make sure you stop in at the Rustic Tavern.
The Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site is home to 256 acres of historic clay pits and wildlife, however hiking in the Massold Clay Canyons is just one of the activities you can enjoy when you arrive. If you want to learn more about 20th century industrialism, you can tour the Claybank Brink Plant. Membership or a day pass is required and can be obtained by visiting their website. After a day of hiking and history you don’t need to travel far to reach the Bunkhouse Café. Located in the Bunkhouse Interpretive Centre you can treat yourself to lunch, dessert (Saskatoon pie!) and old-world breads that are cooked onsite in the outdoor brick bread oven. For more information on Saskatchewan Heritage sites make sure you visit Mysask411 as we highlighted the Brick Plant in a past blog.
St. Victor Petroglyphs Provincial Park is a small commemorative park established to protect Aboriginal rock art, or petroglyphs. To date, 360 individual glyphs have been discovered. Petroglyphs date back hundreds of years and differ from pictographs in that they are images etched into rock where the latter is images painted on rock. To protect the glyphs, access to the cliff edge is restricted, however there is a lookout point where visitors can look down at the images. The petroglyphs are in a secluded area with many small towns surrounding. It’s best to take food and water with you unless you are up for a short car ride after your visit. All within a 30-minute car ride of the park are these local gems: Nash’s Restaurant and Lounge and New Texas Cafe. In May we visited the Wanuskewin Heritage Park and what we didn’t know at the time is that in 2020 petroglyphs were uncovered there as well, by the bison! Bison had worn away vegetation revealing the rock art. Pretty cool find!
Stepping onto the Motherwell Homestead National Historic Site is like stepping into a prairie scene from the 1900’s. The landscape, stone house and big red barn set the stage for the life of many homesteaders at the time. The Homestead is just over an hour’s drive northeast of Regina and an hour west of Yorkton. Check the website for hours of operation and fees as the site is only open seasonally. Guests are invited to wander the property themselves or register for a tour. Day camps are also available! Just down the road is Abernethy and a cute little restaurant called Grammy’s Place.
Well friends, that wraps up our Mysask411 Road Trip! As we reflect on our trip, what amazes us the most is all the unique places there are to visit right here in our beautiful province. Usually when we think of vacationing it’s travelling to a location “far enough” away to see new places. The reality is, we have so many places to see right here in Saskatchewan. Thank you for coming along for the ride. We hope you enjoyed the trip!
-Sarah Elchuk is a member of the Marketing Team at Directwest