August 24 & 25, 2018

This scenic valley is located in southern Saskatchewan. It features rolling hills, the Qu’Appelle River and many lakes that the river feeds. It is a must-see for travellers to Saskatchewan. We stayed at Crooked Lake Provincial Park on Friday night. We were fortunate to get site 33, which is right on the lake and has little steps leading to the rocky shore. In true retriever fashion, Poppy bolted for the water as soon as we had parked the Chinook.

We arrived at noon, so we had all day to explore and relax. The smoke from the BC forest fires was still strong, but the lake was beautiful. We gathered wood for a fire, but Mother Nature had something else planned. While we were preparing dinner, the winds picked up and then the lightning, thunder, and rain came, so we hunkered down in the Chinook to eat and pass the evening.

This picture makes me a little sad. Daisy shows her 15.5 years in it.

The next morning, we were greeted with much cooler temperatures. It was like autumn came during the night, which took us by surprise. Was it our imagination that leaves turned color overnight? Was it heat stress or cooler temperatures? Brrr.

We continued our scenic drive to Fort Qu’Appelle, which had been a Hudson’s Bay trading post.

We thought we would investigate the Lion’s campground in town, but when we arrived, police were down at the beach stringing up Caution tape. The beach and campground were crawling with police and paramedics. It did not look good. Sure enough, a woman had been found dead on the beach. No foul play is suspected. If she drowned, it wouldn’t be surprising because of the storm the night before and the windy conditions that day. The distressing situation is that the police cannot locate her 7-year-old son who had been with her. This happened on Saturday, and as of today (Friday), they still can’t find him. The family is frantic.

We continued on to Katepwa Provincial Park. We passed through the picturesque town of Lebret before reaching the park. Sadly, the park is day-use only. We walked the girls on the beach and saw a job posting for Poppy:

Lebret:

Church in Lebret

Lebret

For the night, we ended up staying at an overpriced Regional park before reaching our basecamp in Wakaw on Sunday.

Big Quill Lake, on the way to Wakaw:

Now we will spend a few days winterizing our motorhome and securing everything in our shipping container. Then, we will head to our autumn basecamp in British Columbia.  What a summer it has been!