Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is an interprovincial park straddling the southern…read moreAlberta-Saskatchewan border, located southeast of Medicine Hat. The Cypress Hills rises up above the surrounding prairie, to a maximum elevation of 4,816 ft, making it Canada's highest point between the Canadian Rockies and the Labrador peninsula and also the highest point in Saskatchewan (!!!). The transition is somewhat sudden. One minute you're in prairie and the next mile you feel that you're in the mountains! I saw extensive forest, interesting grasslands and flowers, and breathtaking scenery. I'm told that most of the flora here is shared with the mountains in states such as Montana and Wyoming rather than with the rest of Canada. My friend Jim and I decided one day to drive out here after work (from Medicine Hat) and drive around. Jim had previously taken is Boy Scout troup out here for backpacking trips. I wanted to take a look at this beautifull park and also set food in Saskatchewan for the first time. So we drove around admiring the scenery and chatting about work issues and Canadian politics (I'm known in some circles as a closet Canadian). Our plan was to drive into the Saskatchewan section of the park and then back up to the Trans Canada Highway. But soon paved road turned to gravel, then to mud and before we knew it we were stuck in spring mud! We finally got ourselves out and turned around, but not before being caked (head to toe) with mud. Later at a local car wash, it took about 10 dollars worth of quarters to clean the mud from the wheel wells and other parts of the car. As a person who grew up in the Midwest, I should have known better! I would love to come back here and enjoy this jewell of a park again in a more deliberate fashion. I'd hike, I'd swim, and maybe I'd camp. I would also explore some of the history that was made here. For example, The Cypress Hills Massacre, a key event in Canadian History leading to the creation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) occurred in the Hills when a group of American wolvers from Montana massacred an Assiniboine encampment. Nearby Fort Walsh was established to bring law and order to the Canadian border region.

It's a nice, hilly, and forested area in the middle of the flat and desolate prairies. With…read moreElkwater Lake nearby and Fort Walsh for your history comforts, what's not to like about this place? You literally go from the flat, brown prairies to this hilly area with lots of trees and amazing scenery. Definitely a place to check out if you're in the area.