Our driving tour of southwest Saskatchewan unveiled some real hidden gems, and here are my personal top ten.
Welcome to Letters From Windermere, where I write about:
- HISTORY: mostly Western Canada history.
- WRITING: info about my writing journey.
- BOOKS: one book recommendation each month.
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Off the Beaten Path
Most people don’t venture off the main highway when crossing the prairies, so they remain unaware of the spectacular scenery to the north and south. Remember, the engineers in charge of building roads choose the flattest, straightest terrain possible — the views are the last thing on their minds!
After I attended the very enjoyable and well-organized four-day Saskatchewan Festival of Words in Moose Jaw, my husband and I were joined by my brother Rob and his wife Wendy from the family farm in North Battleford. We spent two weeks touring the southwest corner of the province.
All four of us love the landscape, so we never grew tired of the big skies and the endless prairie. This photo shows two of my favourite people, Wendy and Rob.
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Hidden Gems: Willow Bunch Giant
We began with a trip to this tiny community where Edouard Beaupré lived. The museum is situated in the beautiful old Sacred Heart convent, built in 1914. Aside from one room dedicated to the giant, it is one of the best local museums we visited.
Edouard’s room is dedicated to the young man who grew to be eight feet, three inches tall, making him one of the tallest men in recorded history. (The photograph is somewhat misleading because of the angle, but the model is made to size). This room contains photographs, newspaper clippings, and even his nine-foot bed.
Edouard was the eldest of twenty children (in this French/Métis community, big families were the norm). The young man longed to be a rancher, but could never find a horse large enough to carry him. Instead, he joined the Barnum & Bailey Circus and tragically, died at the age of twenty-three from a pulmonary hemorrhage. His body was eventually returned to his family and is buried just outside the museum.
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Hidden Gems: The Big Muddy Badlands
There was so much to see in this little-known part of the province that we booked a day-long guided tour called Legends and Landscapes from Big Muddy Tours in Coronach, Saskatchewan. The Big Muddy refers to a deep, dramatic valley carved by glacial meltwater more than 12,000 years ago. Its sandstone cliffs and remote caves served as hideouts for notorious bandits!
A knowledgeable guide accompanied us while we drove around to scenic viewpoints including the famous Castle Butte, shown here.
We also visited a museum, an old country school, and several impressive Indigenous sites located on private property that we would never have seen otherwise.
Lying along the top of the ridge on the right side of this photo is the American border. Our guide told us that one visitor walked up there to put his toe over the line and immediately a military Black Hawk helicopter swooped down from the U.S. side. We all agreed to keep a safe distance!
Sam Kelly and his gang were experienced thieves and this is the cave where they fled after stealing horses from the Americans. They hid the horses in another nearby cave before selling them.
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Hidden Gems: Texas Longhorns
This hidden gem has special meaning for me, because Longhorns figure heavily in my new novel Grasslands, coming next April. I was delighted when we spotted a small herd in a pasture beside the road. Originally almost every cow in Canada was a Texas Longhorn, driven from the United States in search of grass. In fact, all the cattle in early ranching days came from the south, because there was no railway to the east and no way to cross the Rocky Mountains to the west.
Over time, they were bred with British breeds like Herefords and Angus, producing more docile livestock and better meat. Purebred longhorns are now few and far between, prized for their hides and horns. In my new novel, set in the Cypress Hills in 1890, Longhorns were still the predominant breed. Just imagine tens of thousands of these animals roving the plains!
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Hidden Gems: Convent Inn
My love of old buildings was gratified by the meticulously restored original woodwork and fixtures found at the Convent Inn in tiny Val Marie.
Owners Mette Ducan and her son Adam keep the place spotless and cook their guests a full breakfast. There are ten bedrooms of varying sizes, a comfortable lounge, and even a chapel on the premises.
Our host told us that three different guests have reported seeing ghosts — one of them saw a nun, one saw a priest, and one saw a little boy. I don’t THINK I believe in ghosts, but while we were lying in bed one night, the door to our room silently opened all the way to the wall, and there was not a breath of wind!
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Hidden Gems: Grasslands Park
Val Marie is the gateway to the spectacular Grasslands National Park, featuring untouched native grasses and a plethora of prairie animals and birds, including a herd of bison. Sadly, we did not catch sight of the herd — the closest we came was this bleached skeleton (although we did see a very entertaining prairie dog colony). You can drive or hike or camp at two different campgrounds in the park. We took a two-hour interpretive hike with an enthusiastic Parks Canada visitor guide.
Among other interesting facts, she told us that about 25,000 tipi rings have been found in the park— and those are only the ones they have identified so far!
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Hidden Gems: Eastend Scenic Rail Tour
We were fortunate enough to be among the first passengers on this brand new excursion. A farmer named Gary Southgate from my home community of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, made it his mission to collect old train cars and get them running. After years of hard work, prolonged negotiations with Transport Canada, and considerable expense on his part, he finally did it!
We mounted the train with the help of a volunteer conductor (doesn’t he look the part?)
We spent a leisurely three hours chugging along to Ravenscrag and back, admiring the beautiful Frenchman River Valley. The original name of the river was the White Mud, and you can see why — the unusual streaks and cliffs of white clay on the riverbanks.
(Note: Eastend is also the home of Scotty, the largest T-Rex dinosaur discovered in the world. He resides at the museum in Eastend, along with some other wonderful fossil finds. I spent a month in Eastend in 2024 and wrote about it here: Ode to Eastend.)
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Hidden Gems: Jones Peak
Quite honestly, this alone would be worth a side trip from the Trans-Canada Highway, because it is one of the most spectacular panoramic views you will find anywhere. Located about 15 kilometres from Eastend, named after local pioneer and amateur paleontologist Harold (Corky) Jones, this peak allows you to see for miles in every direction. (The railway tracks run past on the other side of the valley.) Here my brother is standing on one of the cliffs, but no photograph can do this view justice.
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Hidden Gems: Old Man on His Back
Anyone familiar with the work of acclaimed Saskatchewan author Sharon Butala knows that she left her home in the city and moved to a remote ranch south of Eastend when she married Peter Butala. Her love of the rural lifestyle and the prairie scenery inspired many of her best works, including The Perfection of the Morning.
In the 1990s, the couple deeded part of the ranch to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, for the specific goals of preserving natural grasslands and native bison. This is now available to visitors as the 13,000-acre Old Man On His Back Prairie Heritage and Conservation Area. There is a small interpretive centre on the original Butala homestead, founded by Peter’s parents in 1913.
In 2015 the property was designated a nocturnal preserve due to the absence of natural light, so it is a mecca for stargazers.
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Hidden Gems: Frontier Foursquare
This hidden gem isn’t open to the public, but it was a jewel of a find for me!
I met a fellow writer named Suzy Krause at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words. She grew up on a farm near Frontier and now lives in Regina with her husband and children. Since she was visiting her parents in Frontier, I dropped by for a visit.
Much to my delight, her parents live in a lovingly restored foursquare ordered from the T. Eaton Company catalogue, similar to the one in my novel Wildwood!
(Eight years ago, Suzy’s grandmother accidentally bid on the house at an auction sale in Gravelbourg and bought it for $500. You can read the whole story here: The House My Grandma Bought.
Suzy’s parents moved it about 250 kilometres to Frontier, and have been painstakingly stripping paint and refinishing floors and sourcing original light fixtures — all those things you do when you are an old house fanatic. (On some days we were travelling, the air was smoky — hence the colour).
I loved seeing the old house and meeting Suzy, whose fourth novel will be published by Simon & Schuster Canada in 2027 — we will share a publisher! (Note my longhorn pendant.)
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Hidden Gems: Historic Reesor Ranch
Few original cattle ranches are still operating, but the Historic Reesor Ranch has been going strong since 1904 and is available for visitors to stay, eat, hike, ride horses, and soak up the cowboy atmosphere! Jason Reesor, the sixth generation cowboy to operate the ranch, also serves up a mean steak dinner in the cookhouse.
Along with five self-contained cabins, the ranch offers five bedrooms inside the original Reesor farmhouse, and that’s where we chose to stay.
Once again, I marvelled at all the historical details inside and imagined the Reesor family lounging in this living room on a cold winter’s night with the fireplace blazing.
From the ranch, it’s less than an hour to Maple Creek (home of the province’s biggest toy store called Cowtown Kids, and a bookstore that carries my novels), the Cypress Hills Provincial Park, and historic Fort Walsh, where you can hear the story of how Sitting Bull and his people fled to the Cypress Hills after defeating General Custer.
We saw many other wonderful sights on our tour, too many to describe!
One final note: if you are searching for dining options, here’s a shoutout to the Gallery Café in Moose Jaw, Leona’s Bakery in Shaunavon, the Lakeview Grill at the Cypress Hills Visitor Centre, Rafter R Brewing in Maple Creek (no food service, but the best draft beer), and the Harvest Eatery in Shaunavon.
Enjoy your visit to stunning southwestern Saskatchewan!
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Upcoming Event
From noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 5, 2026, I’ll sign books and chat with customers at one of my favourite Vancouver Island bookstores, Chapters Nanaimo, Woodgrove Centre, 6670 Mary Ellen Drive. For more information, 250-390-0380.
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Coming Soon
My debut novel Bird’s Eye View is in many ways my favourite book so far, and I have heard some readers say it is their favourite as well. It is now available for preorder at any bookseller. Preorders are what boosts a book onto the bestseller list. It would be a huge thrill if this novel, first published in 2014, made it onto that list again.
The book will be relaunched (in Canada only) with this new cover showing the white cliffs of Dover on November 10, 2026, just before Remembrance Day. I wrote it as a heartfelt tribute to Canadian women in wartime.
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Book of the Month
I had the good fortune to meet the author Zarqa Nawaz of Regina at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words, the creator of the hit CBC series Little Mosque on the Prairie, and she is just as funny in person as in print! Her 2016 memoir was new to me and I really enjoyed reading about how Zarqa made her unique mark on the world.
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Friends, we are heading to our cottage on Vancouver Island for a few weeks, where I will lock the door and complete the final draft of my new novel Grasslands. Look for my next newsletter on Wednesday, September 16, 2026. In the meantime, enjoy the last beautiful weeks of summer.
As always, Elinor
