Wasagaming

The basic plan was to head west (and north) on the Yellowhead Trail (CA 16) from Winnipeg to Jasper, with stops in Saskatoon and Edmonton.  Riding Mountain Park was a little off the path, but offered a diversion from the prairie and the wheat fields.  The Park is a large forested upland that rises above the flatness of southern Manitoba.  The transition is abrupt - you could be climbing into the foothills of the Rockies, except that the Rockies are still 700 miles west.

Wasagaming (accent on second syllable) is the resort town on the southern edge of the park, on the shores of Clear Lake.  By resort, I mean the cabin resort communities of the 1930s and the 1950s.  This is not Sun Valley or Cancun.  The fact that it is within the historic park helps maintain its feel.  The summer crowds were gone and you got the sense the town was buttoning up for the winter.