Camping in Saskatchewan

The province's southern third is indeed agricultural flatland, but the Parkland Belt running through its centre — and the vast boreal north above it — contain some of the least crowded and most beautiful camping terrain in the country.

Straddling the prairie-boreal transition near the town of Prince Albert, the park offers lakeside camping at Waskesiu, a free-roaming bison herd on the park's western grasslands, and one of the most diverse wildlife rosters in Canadian prairie parks — black bear, moose, elk, beaver, wolf, and white pelican.

The province's network of provincial parks — Meadow Lake, Narrow Hills, Cypress Hills Interprovincial, Candle Lake, Greenwater Lake — offers a range of lake camping, canoeing, and fishing that receives a fraction of the attention given to comparable parks in Ontario or BC. Meadow Lake Provincial Park alone covers 1,600 square kilometres and more than 25 lakes. Cypress Hills rises above the plains into a cooler, wetter ecosystem; its highest ground was never covered by ice in the last glaciation.

Practical notes: mosquitoes and black flies are significant from late May through July in boreal regions — Lakes are warm enough for swimming by late July. Cypress Hills is a designated Dark-Sky Preserve; aurora is common September through March.

T. rex Discovered in Saskatchewan — The Fossil Capital of Canada

• The province's badlands — particularly around Eastend in the southwest — have yielded some of the most complete and scientifically significant dinosaur specimens ever found in North America.
• The star of the collection is "Scotty," a Tyrannosaurus rex discovered near Eastend in 1991 and excavated over a decade.
• When fully analyzed, Scotty was determined to be the largest T. rex ever found — tipping the scales at an estimated 8,800 kilograms (19,400 lbs) and measuring over 13 metres from snout to tail.
• Scotty is heavier than Sue (Field Museum, Chicago) and about 65% complete.

A cast of Scotty is displayed at the T. rex Discovery Centre in Eastend; the original is at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina. The centre has a mounted Scotty cast, a fossil lab and exhibits on the region's Cretaceous past.

Beyond Scotty, Saskatchewan's fossil record includes Triceratops, hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs, and dozens of species of Cretaceous sea creatures. Fossils in Saskatchewan belong to the Crown under the Heritage Property Act. Leave them in place and report finds to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.