Saskatchewan is also called the Land of Living Skies. While the southern part of Saskatchewan is dominated by seemingly endless grain fields, the landscape changes all the time. The prairie is at times gently undulating, called the „Rolling Hills“, with sometimes, for Canadian standards, twisty roads. Other areas are actually completely flat; the fields extend to the horizon, with on top of that the infinite sky. Only small green oases – f houses surrounded by trees – break occasionally this pattern.
Respect for wide vehicles
We don’t get bored while driving through Saskatchewan. We have to watch out for wide agricultural vehicles traveling very slowly that sometimes need both lanes. We drive along lakes and ponds, crossing the Saskatchewan River and see coyotes on the roadside. We pass through small villages, that have closed their tourist information centers since early September because summer season is over. The highest elevations in these places are not the steeples but grain silos. Next to each grain silo complex is a long freight train. In the countryside you find some peaceful cemeteries framed by a simple, low fence.
The World in Saskatchewan
We see many marshmallows, as I call the big round bales of hay or straw, on the harvested fields. Horses and cows graze in the meadows. Here and there the flat landscape turns hilly or a forested area suddenly appears out of nowhere. What from a distance looks like some regular bushes, turns out to be a couple of aspen, whose white trunks stand out from the green-yellow discoloring of the leaves. In the area between Saskatoon and Prince Albert city names like Waldheim, Gruenthal and Neuhorst remind us of Germany. Elsewhere we find names that are reminiscent of other regions in the world like Zealandia.
Spectacle in the sky
The sky is really big in Saskatchewan, especially when there is nothing blocking the view of the horizon, no hills, no mountains, no cities, just flat land. The sky offers breathtaking views, sometimes bright blue, sometimes there are white clouds in a variety of formations, sometimes entire fields of clouds unfold a gray-blue-white play in the sky. The sunsets are magnificent.
In Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park in south Saskatchewan the rolling prairie seems to be preserved in their original state. However, cows graze here today and no more bison like 150 years ago. The Cypress Hills reach heights of 1468 meters above sea level. From here the views sweep across the seemingly endless prairie to the horizon and up into the infinite, vibrant sky of Saskatchewan.
By the way: in summer the clock doesn’t go forward in Saskatchewan. Here, the time stays always the same.