This fall we spent much of our late September and October touring western Manitoba, central and eastern Saskatchewan in the BJ8 or Morgan. In mid October we decided to have lunch at the Hawood Inn at Waskesiu, Prince Albert National Park, which is some 140 miles north of Saskatoon. As with any trip, getting there is more than half the fun and especially in the BJ8.

From Saskatoon we traveled northeast to Rosthern although we didn't stop here there is an excellent restaurant called Station Arts Center. This is actually an old railway station converted into an interesting tea room, bookshop, gallery and theatre - the homemade fare is superb with soups a specialty of the house. The photos of the Station were taken in the middle of prairie winter. In the summer months the grounds of the Station abound with beautiful annuals and perennials.

    

Turning east on secondary highway #312 we pass the Seager Wheeler Historic site (home of a famous wheat farmer of the 1920's) then cross the South Saskatchewan River on the Gabriel Dumont Bridge to turn north on #225 to Batoche National Historic Site, Parks Canada. To the south of this junction (#312 and 225) some five miles is the Fish Creek battle site. This general area was the center of the Northwest Rebellion. I had several reasons for picking this route to Prince Alberta National Park. The first reason was the drive the route follows a good portion of the South Saskatchewan and the fall colours show exceptionally well. The second reason was to obtain additional information from Irwin Wilson, the manager at the Batoche National Historic Site.

In places along the river we were greeted by skeins of Canadian Geese while on the uplands there were Golden and Bald Eagles migrating south, these followed by the odd hawk, Broad-winged and Swainson's. The small farms which follow one after another from the junction of 312 and 225 until you turn east towards Bellevue are typical of the farm lots laid out along the south shore of the St. Lawrence during French settlement. Narrow, possibly a couple hundred meters wide but deep. In many cases these farms stretch 1000 meters from the banks of the South Saskatchewan to highway 225. Here the west bank of the river is forested with dense stands of aspen giving away to a mixed forest of birch, jack pine and white spruce and the odd small farmstead.

At the Batoche Site we also decided to photograph the Church and cemetery and hike down to the river (these photos are found on the Duck Lake Tour page). Then we returned to leave. Before reaching the parking lot we were accosted by an elderly couple "Is that your Healey?" "Yes." I replied. Quickly we learned that these folks were from Pelly, Saskatchewan. Pelly, actually Fort Livingston, was the original capital of the North West Territories and the homebase of NWMP Two miles north of Pelly was the location of a Hudson Bay Company outpost known Fort Pelly. This fort was built in the 1700s. We had been through Pelly the previous week but could not find the Forts. Unfortunately the local museum was closed. A further surprise occurred when we reached the Healey: the publication on Batoche I needed was held against the windscreen by a wiper blade -good old Irwin!

North and east from Batoche there is a gradual climb to pass through Bellevue, the pea capital of Saskatchewan. Bellevue has a great community center featuring a variety of local crafts - carvings, needlework and paintings. Sold here are dried packaged peas with an excellent recipe for pea soup! Through more very hilly moraine, then from the top of one of these hills you can see for more than 30 miles in most directions. This is followed by the long but quick descent to Domremy. Then we traveled north through more undulating moraine to St. Louis which sits perched on the banks of the South Saskatchewan. As we crossed the old railway bridge here we could see hundreds of Snow Geese; actually both white and blue phases were present. The proportion of blue to white Snow geese will give a rough indication of where they nest in arctic Canada, low proportion representing western arctic or high proportion the eastern arctic. Along with the Snows were a sprinkling of Canada geese and ducks.

About ten miles north we've stopped at Prince Albert, a city with a very high proportion of grand old three storey houses, a few of these operating as bed and breakfast. After fueling up the Healey we were off north towards Prince Albert National Park. Crossing the North Saskatchewan River we were within 20 miles of the turn off to the original approach to the Park, the very scenic and winding route to the Park. From just south of Prince Albert you enter what ecologists refer to as mixed wood forest, usually dominated by birch and white spruce with jack pine growing in burned over areas, and tamarack and black spruce in wet or boggy sites. Within this mixture small stands of trembling aspen can occur. As we turned off on the old road (Highway 263) which would take us past Christopher and Emma Lakes we noted that in the dips, low spots, the leaves had not begun to turn to the various yellows but were brown. Margaret said that the leaves on these trees had been touched by heavy frost.

While on hilltops both aspen and birch were shifting through the range from greens to yellows while the shrubs, which make up the under-story displayed a range of reds, rose and dogwoods, to orange, primarily the currant. Along the edges of the small lakes and the odd stream the tamarack were a brilliant gold. We stopped to photograph at Sandy Lake and then at Shady Lake we pulled a big U-turn to take advantage of the viewing tower we had passed. The view from the tower was spectacular. On the way to the tower I spied a Ruffed grouse nestled next to a post. Normally these fellows sit on fallen logs and drum away but not this time.

    

From Shady Lake it was a short drive of five to seven miles to the townsite of Waskesiu. We stopped at a viewing spot that looked out over Waskesiu Lake. Across the road from this site were some of the beautiful log houses that the Park's staff occupy. This brought back a flood of memories of another National Park, Riding Mountain, and fun weekends as a teenager!

  

Cars and people everywhere on to the "main street" and in the parking areas, wow for mid October and for the middle of the week, Waskesiu was extremely busy. The Hawood Inn has an excellent dining room, modern furnishings, with a spectacular collection of art on the walls this day. The paintings were done on old barn wood with the subjects ranging from North American native subjects to wildlife themes. The service superb, and the food excellent, washed down quietly with Big Rock "Warthog cream ale," ideal after a long drive in a very warm BJ8.

  

Three large "bikers" left the dining room while we were eating; they spent about five minutes walking around and looking at our Healey. We could see lots of hand motion; they must have enjoyed the car! After lunch we walked the main street, as Margaret had never visited the Park. I had been there several times on behalf of the Canadian Wildlife Service. We crossed to the beach area to watch a couple sailing in the bay. Then we crossed back to the side with the shops to window shop. As we were getting ready to leave an old GMC panel van came to a screeching stop "What year's your Healey?" A "65 " I replied. Well half an hour later we were on our way. I had learned from the fellow in the van that he owned the first BN4 Healey in Regina and the first Jaguar XKE in Saskatchewan, both of which he wished he still had after gazing at our BJ8. It's these encounters more common this fall than in previous years that make touring such fun - folks seem to love the cars and they want to chat and re-live memories of days past!

We returned to Saskatoon by a more direct route, the main provincial connections between the north and Saskatoon, Highways 2 and 11. We were passed and inspected by almost all vehicles, some almost at their peril as they were not watching for oncoming traffic.