We chopped down a tree in the forest!

Part 2! We had such a perfect Prince Albert National Park trip this year that I wanted to write about it. There’s still one more week to go get your tree!

As I mentioned in my last post, we stayed in a cabin at Elk Ridge Resort this year. However on the way in, we decided to overshoot the Elk Ridge turnoff, head into the park, and do the Boundary Bog hiking trail before it got dark. This is always a nice quick trail to do either on your way in or out of the park, and was a great way to stretch our legs after a few hours of driving. I love this trail in the winter, with the dormant tamaracks and snow-covered boardwalk.

After Boundary Bog we went to check in at Elk Ridge, unpacked, read books for a while, and then went for supper at the Fireside restaurant. We had a delicious meal, both ordering the available fish dishes, which proved not so heavy that we had room for sticky date pudding for dessert.

On Saturday morning we made breakfast and coffee in the cabin and set our game plan for the day. We had originally hoped to do some cross country skiing on this trip, but the trails at Elk Ridge and in PANP were not quite ready yet, so we recalibrated and decided to try the Mud Creek hiking trail at South Bay. I have been to PANP nearly every year of my life, but never on this trail, and I feel ripped off! It was such an amazingly beautiful trail, with water views almost the whole way around the loop. The highlight though was seeing two otters tumbling around, playing, and sliding on the ice on their bellies – neither of us had ever seen this outside of a zoo!

(The sun was so bright, I had no idea if I was in focus or not, so these are not particularly good photos.)

After Mud Creek, we drove over to the Height of Land Tower, which is another park institution that I only recently discovered for myself and feel ripped off about. The road was blocked so we parked at the barrier and did the 5 minute walk to the tower. This is a park highlight, winter or summer – such an amazing view.

We then stopped at the park office to get our tree permit and couldn’t resist the 25% off on park merch. We restrained ourselves to a couple of mugs, however, and then set off for one last trail – Waskesiu River. Usually we see some wildlife on this one in the winter but it was silent except for some invisible chattering squirrels. Our winter visits often coincide with cloudy weather – the sunny day made for a new experience on this trail!

The weather overall was pretty perfect for winter hiking – about -20 with almost no wind, which was not too cold but not so warm that we overheated while in full winter walking gear.

Our second supper at Fireside was not quite as memorable as the first, but still good. We both ordered dishes featuring elk (when in Rome), but this time were too full for dessert.

We made a pretty quick exit on our final day – breakfast in the cabin, pack up and check out, and a stopoff to choose a tree. In other years it’s taken quite a while to find a good tree, but this time we spotted a nicely shaped, full tree right off the road. It just barely fit into the vehicle – definitely the fanciest tree we’ve brought home from the park!

On the way home we decided to stop in Hague and try Jake’s Burger, which was featured a couple years ago on a “top burgers in Saskatchewan” list. We’ve of course driven past Hague dozens of times, but never stopped to eat. Chalk it up to yet another thing we’ve cheated ourselves out of all these years – I will never be stopping for lunch at Prince Albert McDonald’s again! The burgers were so fresh and juicy and the options for free toppings unbeatable. We opted out of fries (they did look amazing though) so we could get a saskatoon tart with ice cream (in reality, ice cream with a bit of tart on the side) from Home Baked Goodness in the same little food court building. I think most south-central SK road trippers know about the legendary Wakaw rest stop, but this place is giving it a run for its money!

Overall, we had a wonderful weekend keeping some traditions alive and adding in new ones. While we splurged a bit, this is a trip that needn’t be terribly expensive if you plan your accommodations and meals right either. Visiting PANP is a perfect way to make the most of winter in SK!