MAIN BEACH - On Clear Lake in the town of Wasagaming
Wow, the scenery once you get out of the Rockies sure is ordinary and somewhat of a let down but you gotta get thru the prairies to get back to Ontario. We took our time heading east with stops in Cochrane and Medicine Hat, Alberta and White City and Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Nothing much exciting to share from any of those stops.
Next destination was Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, just north of Brandon by about 45 minutes. We’d never even heard of it before but since we weren’t in any rush to get back to Ontario, thought we’d spend a week here and check it out.
The parks big draw is Clear Lake and it’s appropriately named. It’s a big, clear lake with a nice sandy bottom in most places. The town of Wasagaming is right on the south side of the lake and it’s a quaint but touristy town. Kinda reminded me of Grand Bend but not nearly as busy. Lots of people watching since the main beach is right in town, and crowded on sunny days. Needless to say we avoided that part of lake especially after we saw how stirred up and murky the water got at the end of the day.
We found a nice little picnic/beach area on the north side of the lake that was perfect. Much quieter than the main beach, great for trying out the the paddle board again and no need to worry about running over some little kid. :-) Too bad the days we made it to the beach, the water conditions were less than ideal for paddling. Oh well, the wave action certainly made us work on our balance...a lot!
Lots to keep you busy here, plenty of trails to walk/hike and bike. We opted not to hike even though there is a “mountain”, but after Banff...well, there’s just no comparison. We biked around the lake, supposedly a 20K trail but we added at least another 10K to that after part of the trail the ranger at the visitor centre said was passable, wasn’t. Not even close. The trail wasn’t maintained and even walking it was tight thru the vegetation, basically impossible on a bike. We eventually ended up detouring around via the roads which was much faster. Pooched after that since we really haven’t been on our bikes since Texas which was back in March.
This part of Manitoba is supposed to have lots of moose and elk, didn’t see any, not even a single deer. Did see a decent sized black bear 2 times while we driving around, in just about the same location both times....right by a group campground on the road through the park.
Pretty sure we’ll come back to Riding Mountain on our way back home from a future road trip. It’s a great place to relax and enjoy the water. If you’re ever in this part of Manitoba, give it a try, you won’t regret it.
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