CAMPGROUND: 2nd night at Rock Creek
LOCATION: Grasslands National Park, in SW Saskatchewan
WEATHER: Mostly sunny. High 70

We joined the camp rangers for “Cowboy Coffee”. A ranger made coffee over a campfire like the cowboys used to do. One of the rangers lives on a ranch nearby and told us some tales of her life on the range. Fun!

We took a hike and could see our campground far below.

Red Adirondack chairs are the symbol of Canada’s national parks. They had placed these two at the top.

In addition to the campsites and cabins, there are a few tipis available for renting.

In the afternoon, we took another hike. This national park, unlike most, doesn’t have strict rules. Since there aren’t many visitors, they don’t have laid-out trails. You can just walk anywhere in the grassland area. They do post warnings about the need for orienteering skills, as it is easy to get lost out in these badlands. On this hike, we traversed hills and ridges, and down and over ravines. We came across a huge animal skeleton. Most of it was still intact. We think it was an elk or deer.

Being Sunday, almost all of the other campers left. We now have the campground almost to ourselves. Many campers buy firewood (as there are no trees here), then leave the extra at their site. George scrounged up a lot from vacant sites. We will have a nice campfire tonight.

DINNER: My turn. It was Mexican night tonight. We started with chips, salsa and margariitas. The main course was grilled shrimp quesadillas. I added charred green peppers and onions. Side dish was a coleslaw made wiiiiiith cabbage, radishes, and a creamy chipotle dressing.

We watched the last episode of the “Monarch of the Glen” DVD that Tony and Jenny loaned us. We wish we had more to watch – was a great BBC series.