Saskatchewan is one of the world’s primary grain producing regions, with something like 75 million acres under cultivation in the southern and central parts of the province. It ranks up there with the grain belt of the central United States and Ukraine in total production. Alberta and Manitoba produce significant amounts of grain and seed oil crops as well, but Saskatchewan accounts for the majority of Canada’s output.  And outside the provinces two main cities and a couple medium-sized towns the economy is totally based on producing agricultural commodities, probably even more so than in the American grain belt.

Most of the province is almost monotonously flat, although apparently there are some hillier regions in the north beyond where my travels took me.  And the southwestern part of the province also has some areas that are rolling, in a kind of wild west arid kind of a way.  In fact, the landscape south and west of Regina is significantly drier than those areas north and east and also somewhat less pancake flat.   I crossed the southwestern part of the province on my way from Alberta to Saskatoon and then again on a different route while heading back home to Montana from Regina.  Although Saskatchewan seems very similar to North Dakota in terms of economy and landscape, the fact is that the easternmost point on my trip at Regina is about 100 miles north of the eastern part of Montana rather than North Dakota.

This part of the world is honestly somewhat short on tourist attractions, but if you call something a national park, I can’t resist the temptation of checking it out. Grasslands National Park consists of two non-contiguous units in southwestern Saskatchewan a short distance north of the border with Montana and constitutes Canada’s only national park dedicated to preserving the plains/prairie ecosystem. I first hit the park’s quite remote eastern unit, which requires driving a considerable distance on well-graded but unpaved roads. Once you arrive at the park, the so-called Badlands Parkway extends for about ten miles but is only one lane wide with pullouts for passing traffic.   Not that those pullouts are really necessary. I probably only saw about a half dozen other cars during my two hours in the unit. While there is a campground and some longer trails, the Parkway leads to about a half-dozen short trails to overlooks on the badlands – eroded country similar to Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt national parks in the Dakotas. And Grasslands east unit is one of the richest spots in Canada for dinosaur and other fossil finds in the eroded country.  I did all of the short hikes, which I suspect amounted to only three or four miles in total, during the relatively cool hours before noon.

The park’s west unit is a considerable distance away, about two hours on the back roads between some very tiny towns with very limited services. I was really glad I gassed up before I left Regina, because there’s just about nothing in these parts. Grasslands west unit includes some longer hiking trails as well as short ones through prairie dog towns, as well as a campground.  The visitor center is outside the ark boundaries in a nearby small town, and compared to American national parks or those in the Canadian Rockies, it’s just not very developed. I drove the main park loop drive through its heart and then around its edge with rather few stops on the hot afternoon with skies hazy with smoke from forest fires burning farther north and west. Had conditions been more ideal I probably would have gone for a longer hike.  But honestly, I didn’t feel like I missed much.  There’s just not much there!

I crossed the border at a crossing 50 miles north of the small Montana town of Malta, a crossing I suspect sees only a few cars on most days. As one might expect at such a place, the U.S. border guards (people not usually known for being warm and fuzzy) were very friendly and seemed happy just to have someone to talk with briefly.  Back in my home country and my home state doesn’t mean being home, though. I still had about 400 miles to go that evening and the next day to get home to Belgrade.