Exploring Riding Mountain National Park

Bud and I drove out to three different areas of the park over the last days. To the northwest is Lake Audi. We walked a bit of trail along the lake.

We also visited the dam, which is under this footbridge…

and is only about 18 inches high.

It’s a pretty big lake for such a small dam.

We had come to look for Bison in the Bison enclosure and we got to see this one…

up close as she walked by our truck. (We think it was a she as we also saw a calf not far from her.)

We were lucky enough to see a few more as they crossed the road from one bit of shade to another. Apparently 70 degrees and sunny is enough to send these guys to the shade as that one momma and calf were the only bison we saw out in the grasslands.

The following day we headed east, stopping for a short hike at Katherine Lake.

We got off track twice, the first time to dead end at a pow wow arena, most likely for the Anishinabe First Nation who lived here before it was a park. Besides the covered seating around the ring…

it had an attached open shelter, probably for the announcers, singers and drummers.

It also had a covered entrance for the dancers.

The trail had only a few places where you could see the lake,

but it was a pretty walk.

Further east we came to the escarpment at the edge of the “mountain” and a lookout over the vast plain below.

At the base of the escarpment is the historic East Gate, the last gate of its kind in the Canadian National Parks. That’s Manitoba Route 19 entering the park here.

After leaving the gate it goes on across the plain. We’ve found a number of provincial routes that aren’t paved.

On the way back I got this shot of a nice looking beaver dam.

Our last excursion was north to a very short loop trail, the Boreal Trail.

This was a beautifully constructed wheelchair accessible trail.

It led through spruce and larch…

to a small creek and its wetlands that wound through.

The construction looked brand new.

There was plenty of boggy land, but we saw no moose.

It was still a pleasant walk, and short enough to please Bud.

We have enjoyed this park and it was worth it to set up on our very crooked site.