Saskatchewanderer horsing around in the Southwest
Saskatchewanderer Caitlin Taylor ended the Southwest portion of her province wide summer travels with her first ever visit to the Cypress Hills.
Taylor, who has been journeying the province as the Saskatchewanderer since May, has made a pair of trips through this corner of the province, stopping at Grasslands National Park in mid June, and traveling to the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park to ride her horse earlier this week.
Having grown up on an acreage just outside of Saskatoon, the U of S student was really looking forward to her equine camping stay with her own horse.
“It is going extremely, extremely well,” she said of her summer adventures while stopping for lunch in Swift Current on Monday. “It’s been so great to explore Saskatchewan. I grew up here, and I had no idea how little I actually knew about it until I started.”
Taylor was traveling to the Cypress Hills for a pair of days along with neighbour Janice Ford, the instructor who taught her to ride when she was growing up. While at Cypress Hills they had planned to visit the equine camping site, and ride in the area along with a park interpreter.
Taylor said it is important to showcase a variety of Saskatchewan locations, and give a glimpse at the fun families and friends can have right in their own backyard.
“I think it’s a great way to promote the province because I think it’s great for people to see someone actually out there doing the fun things.”
Her first visit of the summer into the Southwest occurred last month when the Saskatchewanderer visited Grasslands National Park.
“That was great. It was definitely a highlight of the summer,” she admitted. “It was just an amazing experience. The thing that I really liked about it was that I was standing on top of this huge hill, and all I could see for miles and miles was natural grassland. There was not a fence, or a radio tower, or an electrical box or anything like that, and it was just amazing to see the exact same view that it looked like thousands of years ago.”
She notes other summer highlights include a stop in Gravelbourg, a chance to see wild horses at Frenchman Butte, a northern trip to Hudson Bay, plus stopping at Wanuskewin Heritage Park for National Aboriginal Day. Her job has allowed her to participate in diverse activities ranging Saskatchewanderer Caitlin Taylor has made a pair of trips into the Southwest during the summer, spending time at both Grasslands National Park and the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. from a hot air balloon ride over Saskatoon, sailing with the Blackstrap Sailing Club, and enjoying stand up paddle boarding.
With approximately one month left in her Saskatchewanderer experience, Taylor is aiming to continue to uncover more of Saskatchewan’s hidden attractions.
“They’re not really high tourist destinations and so it’s great to go and explore those places and showcase that they are a great destination in Saskatchewan.”
There are a number of ways to view Taylor’s Saskatchewanderer experiences on-line:
Website - www. s a s k a t c h ewanderer.ca.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.co m/skwanderer.
Twitter - https://twitter.com/SkWanderer.
Instagram - http://instagram. anderer/.