a travel post
I started taking Darwin camping when he was 3 years old. Every year since, aside from one year during COVID and another where we tried a different camp site, our spot has been Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. I first fell in love with the area when I was a teenager and it has been an important place I’ve returned to time and time again.
This year felt particularly important. Darwin had an amazing first year of high school and I have been on a personal healing journey. Sitting amongst the lodgepole pines with the whisper of the wind to keep you company and a fire to keep you warm brings a level of relaxation I haven’t felt anywhere else.
We arrived on a Sunday and checked into our campsite, the same campsite we stay in every year right in the park. There is no electricity, so nights tend to be quiet. It’s a refreshing change from life in the city, where the hum of traffic and electricity is a constant static in the air.
To our surprise, there was no fire ban this year! Given the prevalence of wildfires this season, we thought our nightly bonfire tradition might take a break this year. Darwin just turned 15, and I thought it was about time I pass down the knowledge of how to build a fire. I don’t use fire starter, just paper, kindling, and a barbecue lighter. On the very first attempt, Darwin built a successful and beautiful fire.
We also made our annual trip to Eastend, Saskatchewan, where the largest T Rex skeleton in the world was discovered, and visited the T Rex Discovery Centre, home of Scotty the T-Rex. We barely avoided being eaten.
It’s a really fun place to explore. Active paleontologists are working in this location so you get to see new fossils still in the process of being identified.
We rented a boat to take out on Loch Leven, a beautiful tree-lined lake in the middle of the park. Our legs were tired after this and we were ready for lunch. It is so quiet and beautiful out on the water. Lots of seaweed this year!
I absolutely have to give a shout out to Lakeview Grill, a restaurant overlooking this same little lake. In previous years we’ve had their Beyond Burger, which is amazing, but this year they didn’t have any in stock. They did, however, have the Beyond Dog, which is a brand of plant based hot dog that we hadn’t tried before. I will let this photo speak for itself, but it was the best hot dog I ever had. The salad was their house salad with berries and a raspberry vinaigrette. Yum!
Squirrels are your neighbours when you are living in the woods. We had two in particular that earned names. We named them Dempster and Spitz after their preferred food item to steal. One morning I woke up and found Dempster hips deep in a torn open bag of hot dog buns. They are brave little creatures without much fear of humans, so keeping them out of the food was more challenging than you might think. Eventually we realized they were really running the show, so we started making regular payments of sunflower seeds to satisfy their demands.
We spent six nights in this little corner of paradise and arrived home feeling refreshed and ready for Darwin to start school this week. We have a little tradition of going to this lookout point to watch the sun set on our last night at camp. This year we were treated to a stunning display.
Until next time, Cypress Hills. We’ll miss you!
Bonus photos