Grande Prairie, Alberta, CanadaGRANDE PRAIRIE
We loose an hour: Welcome to Albert
We leave town and yes we drive through
more flat land with lots and lots of farmlands and what we also discovered as
we drive along the highway here is, once in a while we see a “flame” near the
highway: I think that the gas line is running parallel and then once in a while
there is a station and they have a high pipe with a small flame on top burning
gas.
And soon after we are in “Welcome to
Alberta” and that means we loose an hour and suddenly it is already noon –
where time goes!!
Stuck in Construction near an old
grain elevator
You should never be in a hurry –
because if you are, then there is a construction site and you have to wait. We
had already a lot of them on our trip and each time we wait and enjoy the
scenery (and sometimes not) at least today we are stopping near the Centennial
Peace Museum and we can admire one of the old Albertan Grain Elevators – they
look super cool.
A stop at the Giant Beaver
Gine said we have to stop in the town
of Beaver lodge, because they have a Giant Beaver – I think Paul had only to
grin for himself that we had to stop here but it looks super cute – I mean how
often do you stand in Front of a Giant Beaver…
- The Beaver Project was initiated by a local who always dreamed of giving Beaverlodge something to bolster town spirits and to encourage tourists to visit the pretty little town: it started in Feb 2004 and by July they have the Giant Beaver
- By the way we could also learn a lot about the Beaver as they had lots of info here
- By the way the name is because here lived the Beaver First Nations and they called it the temporary lodge and so it became Beaver Lodge
Showers at Saskatoon Lake PP – but
don’t swim!!
It is getting hot and Gine said, how
about we stop at the Saskatoon Lake PP they have showers there, electric hookup
and a lake – should be perfect right!! But before even arriving we decided that
we will have showers there, then enjoy the park in the day-use and spend the
night in Grand Prairie.
Driving in with a “gatehouse” we
expected a full and fancy campground – the campground was huge, but we didn’t
see a lot of campers – weird right, it is August. We parked in front of the
shower and had super nice free showers even with free supplied bodywash.
Afterwards in the day-use we got even more confused a gigantic parking lot,
huge picnic areas and playgrounds – large bathrooms and we are the only car???
But then how stupid is it, that you still have to walk to the lake …. Once at
the lake we discovered the problem: you can’t swim here – there is a lot of
blue algae in the lake and we learned later from a park warden that the lake
has no input and no outlet and is full of algae and leaches…. Really, who built
a PP here – I mean is it even worth having a gate house????
A big of a breeze and finally a lot of
sunshine until we thought we had enough for one day and we are ready to head
out.
The perfect spot to stay in Grande
Prairie
As we approach Grande Prairie we know
why it is named after the Prairie – because you are in the middle of one. And
We are surprised on how big that city is – we didn’t do that much research
about it, we went towards the spot where Gine said we could stay for free and
loved it, we are in a park setting with picnic tables and have yes: free
wifi!!! I mean what more do you want.
Only here for a short time in the
middle of the Prairies: Grande Prairie:
- It is the 7th largest city of Alberta with a population of 63.000 and between 2001-2006 it was one of Canada’s fastest growing cities. Their info brochure says: that Arriving in Grande Prairie you quickly realize there is much more to do than you you’d expect – and we clearly were surprised.
- Historically this area was known as Buffalo Plains because the buffalos traversed the large prairie surrounding the area, the catholic father Grouard was the first to refer to the area as the Grande Prairie
- The first time the area was on record was in 1824 and in 1880 the Hudson Bay Fur Trade post was called Grande Prairie
We deserve a to have pizza in the Park
Gine said, maybe this would be the
perfect place for a pizza – and so we checked around and then went to get us a
super yummy pizza – eating it in the park on the picnic table with a beautiful
sunset – what more do you want (I know: you want a charged laptop and we have
difficulty lately as the converter doesn’t work proper, so today our laptops
didn’t got charged… bummer!!! Guess we are reading a book.
Sleeping with the trains
And Paul’s best surprise for the day
was, that we could here the train while sleeping – that was super cool. I mean
that makes you sleep better right!
And in the morning we woke up and the
first sunrays already come towards the park – perfect for a coffee and a new
start of a sunny vacation day.
We didn’t see a lot of the town – but
we liked it way better than Dawson Creek.
2025-05-22