This is another late post, of a trip we took in the fall of 2021. It’s Jan 2022 now, we’re in the omicron wave 5? of Covid now. Hang in there folks, it’s all we can do.
This post is a motorbike write up, with photos. Maps too, if I can figure that out.
We b-lined to Grasslands with our bikes within the travel trailer. We planned to hike and ride in the area, primarily the the backcountry loop, as we fell in love with that part of the park in 2020.
This is an excerpt from our journal, about one of the rides to the Backcountry Loop at Grasslands:
It really is so beautiful! On the way out, just on the edge of the park, a huge ass male bison took a minor interest in us. He was at the side of the road, butt to us, then turned around and then stood in the middle of the road just observing us. Not for long, thankfully, he moved along after 30 seconds or so. Incredible experience.
Onwards, on the most awesome road, that winds and meanders, whoops and drops, up to the red chairs. We carried on a bit, past Otter Basin, into and out of the different backcountry camping areas. At some point we turned around and just enjoyed the spectacular scenery. We stopped near the red chairs but didn’t use them, as we brought our own. We just parked on the hillside and sat, and took it in.
Later in the trip, we did a hike near Val Marie, 70 mile Butte, and a bit of Bear Paw. That was also very beautiful! As it was fall, the rattlesnakes were heading back to their hibernaculum, and we came across a little guy on a trail!
Some photos of Grasslands West Block, rides and hikes.
After a few days camping in the West Block, we moved onto the East Block.
It really seems like such remote territory out there; it’s almost 200 kms from one campground to the other. The roads are… very bumpy! I understand that with the thousands of kms of sealed and unsealed roads in Saskatchewan, keeping them is quite the undertaking. We came across a few fresh repairs, pure tar with chip sealant. Very kind of messy!
The weather was chasing us out of Grasslands; temps were dropping and the water services were getting shut off. Time to move west, so we made our way slowly to Cypress Hill Interprovincial Park, – West block south of Maple Creek Sask.
We had planned to do a lot of riding here; we were in the area the year before and thought all would be a go. It all was, until it wasn’t. In the fall, everything shuts down and the gas station shut down – much earlier than it did in 2020. We were rather, kind of, very bummed out.
Nonetheless, we were so excited to ride the Gap Road again, as we did it once last year before my clutch cable went bust. To our sad surprise, the road was closed! We did a bit of a ride around the park, before deciding to go for it. We passed through the paltry “Road Closed” sign, and rode. It was as amazing, but as Lars said, the road closed took some of the enjoyment away. We got over it quickly and kept riding.
A little concerned with mileage and the gas situation, we called the Elkwater info centre to see if gas was available there. It was, so off we went! The road between the two parks, is absolutely stunning. From the Fort Walsh Road, we kept heading west and the road descended into the valley, and whooped and meandered through the park. We crossed paths with Trans Canada Adventure Trail (TCAT) and eventually, we hit pavement at Reesor Lake. Ascending up again, onto a plateau matched by Fort Walsh, and then met the highway down to Elkwater. It was a brilliant ride, the landscape is beautiful, fall colours, and fun road conditions, perfect! For you fisher people out there, a fellow we bumped into at Reesor Lake said that it is stocked with two or three varieties of trout, and the fishing was catch and release.
We loved the area, but weren’t keen on the campground. It was the only campground open in the park, so there were loads of big RV’s there. To be honest, people just didn’t seem terribly friendly; so were adjust plans a bit. We wanted to ride the two parks, but not camp – there was little available on the Alberta side of the park also. We ended up taking a hotel in Medicine Hat, and trailering the bikes down for the days we wanted to ride. It was the best. We could ride all we wanted, and know that there was a warm room and food at the end of the day.
One amazing ride we did is described here:
We drove our rig back down to Elkwater from Medicine Hat. We started out on the bikes and headed to Conglomerate Hill, south on 615; then at Merryflat we took a right (heading west) on Fox Road. This took us all the way back on the TCAT to the park. It was an amazing ride, we came across only one truck on that part of the route; and it was so scenic, beautiful and remote! There was a fair bit of variation, as it followed presumably, the Frenchman River, so up on the plateaus, down into the valleys, where there were the trees, aspen, the colours were brilliant. So breathtaking! Then on the plateaus, it reminded me of the WABDR, just on a small dirt road, looking out onto the vast. Fox Road took us back into the park, on a “Summer Use Only” road, and then we even had a small water crossing down on the bottom of a valley. We came up back up onto the plateau, and made our way back on the TCAT, and to Elkwater via the centre road past the campsites. It was so awesome, so enjoyable. The weather was supposed to have been hot, but there was cloud cover, which made it much more comfortable.
All in all, we spent half a dozen days riding around both sides of Cypress Hills, including Fort Walsh, and Conglomerate Hills. Pretty obvious to say that we enjoyed it, thoroughly, absolutely, entirely. The cattle on the roads were more numerous than people, the views were just tremendous, it was just grand.
Some pics.
Next up, Milk River Valley, and Writing on Stone Provincial Park.
There was camping available at the park, but the water supply had been shut off so we opted to stay at the Milk River motel for a few nights. It’s a very basic cinder block hotel, with a restaurant, though we didn’t eat there. It was clean, and suited our needs just fine.
We rode to Writing on Stone twice, and also drove there to so we could do a hike in the park. To describe us as frequent flyers would not be incorrect. The area there is very beautiful, open, with two buttes in Montana, dominating the southeast sky. From Milk River, we picked our way to the park via dirt roads, enjoying the experience immensely, while passing by a few massive Hutterite colonies along the way. On one of the rides we rode as close to the East and West Butte’s in Montana, not realizing that they were across the border. At the info centre at Writing on Stone, we learned that only one of them has public access via the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) access. The other is public but all of the property that surrounds it is private. A very weird way of managing land, if you ask me. In any case, the riding was spectacular, gravel roads, some loose, and some packed, little to no traffic, as a rule. We crossed over a couple of bridges, Coffin and Weir. At Weir bridge there was a lovely little public park, with vault toilets, places to put in watercraft, picnic tables and a wood stove protected by the elements.
Some photos here:
An Honourable mention…
We have found that some of the really wonderful travel experiences, views, vistas, have been gleaned from people we happened to meet along the way.
From our journal:
We got to East End, and didn’t really know what to do. I saw a sign for “Pottery” and we followed it. We stopped in on this fellow, down by the grain silos, and he was pitching his wares. Bowls NIXAVL – Nick Saville. (Sept 2023, on our camping adventures on Vancouver Island, we met a very lovely couple who were familiar with Eastend. They said that Nick Saville had passed. He seemed like a lovely person, our condolences to his family) It was very nice chatting with him, he showed us a route to Jone’s Peak; and the gravel road route back to Cypress Hills.
It was tremendous, we almost missed it, but did a turnaround and drove up to the top. Very stunning, indeed. It’s kind of like a condensed Frenchman’s valley, with a bit of the EastBlock badlands thrown in for good measure. I could have stayed there all day, with coffee, and chairs, or a walk along the bluffs…
It really was a gem of a place, and as it turned out, we went there a second time, just to take it all in. I love how the chance meeting can lead to such wonderful experiences.
Here are a few more pics from this trip. Thanks for watching!
Just a few numbers from the bikes:
Lars KLX 350
Last rides during our 2021 prairies road trip around Writing on Stone. Fifty/fifty on gravel and pavement. Some loose surface. Very windy; strong head wind on pavement. Did not need to switch over to reserve.
• 9.68 l X 100 / 240 km = 4.03 l per 100 km
• If the fuel tank capacity is 11.4 l as per specifications, this should give a range of 283 km. But since it was not running on reserve, it seems likely the tank is bigger
Donna’s XT 250
Last rides during our 2021 prairies road trip around Writing on Stone. Fifty/fifty on gravel and pavement. Some loose surface. Very windy; strong head wind on pavement. Fuel light came on and was at 6 km when fuelling.
• (17.03 – 9.68) l X 100 / 240 km = 3.06 l per 100 km
• If the fuel tank capacity is 9.6 l as per specifications, this should give a range of 314 km.
fajersson.org 