Saskatchewan... 5th Day, 2nd Visit

On the fifth day of our visit to southern Saskatchewan, Margarit and I took a drive way down south to the East Block of Grasslands National Park.  I didn't take many photographs with the big camera on this day, as it involved a lot of driving, and we did some hiking.

None of the park brochures included any detailed information about any of the hiking trails.  There was some information at the park visitor center, but the campsite, but nothing at the trailheads themselves.  We were intrigued by a trail called the Valley of 1000 Devils.  But by the time we found some information about it, we realized it was too late in the day to set out on a 10km hike into remote badlands.  So we will have to save that for a return visit.

The East Block is very different from the West Block, and a lot less visited.  There is still a lot of prairie habitat here, but also a lot of badlands exposure.  It is very remote, and basically south of the town of Wood Mountain.  There are essentially no services in Wood Mountain and the nearest services would be at Rockglen, Limerick or Assiniboia.

There is a small camping area just inside the park boundary.  From there you can drive a beautiful 11km scenic road called the  Badlands Parkway.  It follows the edge of the badlands, deep into the park, and there are numerous trailheads.  The area is said to be rich in dinosaur fossils, and we found a few without really looking.  The K/T boundary, a fine line in the geology that indicates the time of the mass extinction, when an asteroid hit the earth, is clearly visible.  I know it as the K/T boundary but the signage in the area suggested K/P.   All sediment below the line is cretaceous, and everything above is tertiary.

One our way back to the apartment we made a stop at the St. Victor Petroglyphs.  This was hugely disappointing.  The petroglyphs are there, exposed on a horizontal rock surface.  But except for some interpretive panels, and one modern replica of the rock art, we were separated from the actual petroglyphs by a chain link fence.  This was some distance away from the rock art making photography virtually impossible.