Exploring Saskatchewan on the Trans Canada Trail: Our Walk, Stories, and Resources

Saskatchewan on the Trans Canada Trail

Discovering a Prairie Province That Defied Our Expectations

When we crossed from Manitoba into Saskatchewan in August 2021, we were beginning the eighth province of our #Hike4Birds across Canada. Behind us lay thousands of kilometres of walking along the Trans Canada Trail, including the rugged landscapes of Atlantic Canada, the forests and waterways of Ontario, and the wide-open agricultural country of southern Manitoba. After weeks of following exposed gravel roads through the Prairies, we thought we had developed a reasonably good understanding of what might lie ahead.  Saskatchewan quickly demonstrated how misleading those expectations could be.

Over the following two months, our journey led us through forested highlands, rolling grasslands, deep river valleys, wetlands, historic communities, and some of the most expansive agricultural landscapes we had ever encountered. We crossed more river valleys by ferry than in any other province, explored places associated with the events of 1885, and discovered that the Prairies were neither as flat nor as empty as we had once imagined.

The Trans Canada Trail itself offered equally striking contrasts. In provincial parks and urban centres, we discovered wonderful footpaths, accessible greenways, and recreational corridors that invited exploration. Between them, however, were long stretches of dusty range roads, uncertain connections, and water routes that presented considerable challenges for two people attempting to walk across the province and country.  

We also encountered remarkable generosity. Farmers, local residents, campground hosts, and people in communities across Saskatchewan offered conversations, assistance, and encouragement at moments when the distance, weather, and accumulated fatigue of our journey were beginning to weigh heavily upon us.

Throughout our crossing, we recorded these experiences in daily travel journals, sharing photographs, birding observations, local histories, and the realities of travelling across Saskatchewan on foot. Since completing our coast-to-coast-to-coast #Hike4Birds, we have expanded the collection with practical planning resources, walking itineraries, cycling assessments, and reflections on what we learned.

Whether you are planning an adventure along the Meewasin Trail, interested in the Qu'Appelle Valley, researching a longer journey across Saskatchewan, or simply curious about what it was like to walk through the Prairies, we invite you to explore these resources and Come Walk With Us.

Follow Our Walk Across Saskatchewan

Our complete Saskatchewan Trans Canada Trail travel journal and published blogs bring together the daily entries, photographs, experiences, and observations from our journey across the province.

Beginning with our arrival from Manitoba into Duck Mountain Provincial Park, the entries follow us through Kamsack, Canora, Good Spirit Lake Provincial Park, Yorkton, and Melville. These early stages introduced us to Saskatchewan's surprising variety of landscapes, including forested lakes, sandy dunes, rolling agricultural country, and communities where the difficulties of travelling along the national trail were often balanced by unexpected kindness.

From Melville, we continued toward the spectacular Qu'Appelle Valley, where our assumptions about the flatness of the Prairies were challenged by steep hillsides, winding waterways, and landscapes that seemed to change with every passing storm. Our account of Trains, Bison, and Storms: Melville to the Qu'Appelle Valley captures one of the memorable days of this part of our journey.

Beyond Fort Qu'Appelle, the Trans Canada Trail led us toward Regina before turning west through Lumsden, Buffalo Pound Provincial Park, Moose Jaw, and the communities surrounding Lake Diefenbaker. Along the way, we encountered excellent urban pathways and spectacular natural areas, but also continued to navigate long road connections, difficult surfaces, unpredictable weather, and sections of the route that followed waterways rather than walkable trails.

Our journey eventually brought us into Saskatoon along the beautiful Meewasin Trail, where the South Saskatchewan River provided one of the most enjoyable urban approaches we experienced anywhere on the Trans Canada Trail.  From Saskatoon, we continued north toward Fish Creek, the Battlefords, and the historic landscapes associated with the Trails of 1885. River ferries, autumn colours, enormous migrating flocks, and increasingly rolling terrain accompanied us through the northern part of the province before we reached the Alberta border.

Readers can follow the complete collection chronologically, return to our first steps in Saskatchewan, or explore the final stages of our walk through the northern Prairies before continuing with us into Alberta.

Planning a Walk or Cycle Across Saskatchewan

For those considering their own adventures on the Trans Canada Trail, we have assembled several resources examining the practicalities of travelling across Saskatchewan on foot or by bicycle.

Our Saskatchewan planning and research guide explores the route, communities, available services, camping and water considerations, and the logistical questions involved in preparing for a longer crossing. Complementing this, our walking itinerary for the Trans Canada Trail in Saskatchewan documents our daily stages, distances, interruptions, and the time required to complete the province.

Saskatchewan is particularly useful for understanding why the Trans Canada Trail cannot be approached as a continuous off-road hiking pathway. Provincial parks such as Good Spirit Lake, Buffalo Pound, and Douglas offer rewarding trails and natural landscapes, while Regina's Wascana pathways and Saskatoon's Meewasin Trail demonstrate the possibilities of well-developed urban recreational networks. However, these exceptional sections are frequently separated by extensive gravel roads, rural concessions, and routes requiring considerable planning and flexibility.

We have also examined whether the Trans Canada Trail in Saskatchewan can be cycled. Although cycling provides advantages when travelling between distant communities, the provincial route includes widely varying surfaces, extensive road sections, ferry crossings, and water-route complications. The experience is therefore quite different from cycling a continuous rail trail or purpose-built recreational corridor.

For a broader introduction, our guide to understanding the Trans Canada Trail in Saskatchewan considers the provincial route, its distinctive trail systems, and the challenges and opportunities it presents to walkers and cyclists.

These resources are intended to help future visitors understand the possibilities and limitations of the national pathway rather than prescribe a particular adventure. Our crossing took place in 2021, and current trail conditions, access arrangements, ferry operations, camping regulations, services, and route alignments should always be confirmed before setting out.

Discovering Saskatchewan's Birds and Wildlife

Birding and encouraging people to reconnect with nature remained central to our #Hike4Birds throughout Saskatchewan. The province provided an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate the diversity of prairie environments, from the forested landscapes of Duck Mountain to agricultural fields, wetlands, river valleys, grasslands, and the increasingly wooded country near Alberta.

Our account, Birding and Wildlife on the Trans Canada Trail in Saskatchewan, brings together the natural history observations recorded throughout our crossing, including some of the most remarkable autumn migration experiences of our entire journey.

Among our most memorable encounters were the birds and wildlife of the Qu'Appelle Valley, where American White Pelicans, raptors, shorebirds, and coyotes occupied a landscape far more varied than we had anticipated. Good Spirit Lake introduced us to sand dunes, woodland birds, and regenerating forests, while the wetlands of Buffalo Pound and the shores of Lake Diefenbaker offered further opportunities to appreciate the importance of water within prairie ecosystems.

As we continued north beyond Saskatoon, the approaching autumn brought enormous flocks of migrating birds. Snow Geese, Canada Geese, cranes, and other species passed overhead in astonishing numbers, sometimes forming an almost continuous procession from one horizon to the other.

Together with our daily journals, these observations preserve our experience of Saskatchewan's birds and wildlife during the summer and autumn of 2021, revealing a province whose natural environments were far more diverse and dynamic than we had expected.

Reflections from Our Eighth Province on the Trans Canada Trail

Saskatchewan challenged our understanding of the Trans Canada Trail in ways that continued the lessons of Manitoba while adding several new dimensions. The province offered extraordinary natural areas, welcoming communities, and excellent individual pathways, but these were frequently separated by long gravel roads and challenging connections that required endurance, flexibility, and patience.

Our reflection, Crown Jewels and Concessions: Reflecting on the Trans Canada Trail in Saskatchewan, explores this contrast between the province's exceptional recreational trails and the extensive rural roadways that connect them.

Yet some of our most important experiences were shaped not by the pathways themselves but by the people we encountered. Our reflection, Hospitality Changes the Geography of a Journey, considers how generosity and unexpected assistance can transform the experience of crossing a vast landscape, particularly when communities, services, and sources of drinking water are widely separated.

Saskatchewan also required us to reconsider our expectations about physical endurance and progress. Long distances, difficult weather, uncertain route connections, and rising fatigue from months of hiking sometimes made continuing more demanding than the circumstances alone might suggest. At the same time, remarkable landscapes, conversations, and discoveries repeatedly reminded us why we had chosen to explore Canada at walking speed.

Looking back after completing our journey across Canada, Saskatchewan remains one of the provinces that most thoroughly challenged our assumptions. The Prairies were neither empty nor unchanging. They were landscapes of extraordinary variety, history, natural beauty, and community, revealing themselves gradually to those willing to move slowly enough to notice.

Come Walk With Us Across Saskatchewan

Today, with our coast-to-coast-to-coast #Hike4Birds complete, we hope these collections offer something for anyone interested in exploring Saskatchewan and the Trans Canada Trail. Some readers may be researching the Qu'Appelle Valley or the Meewasin Trail, others may be considering a longer walk or cycling journey across the Prairies, while still others may be interested in the province's birds, natural history, communities, and historic landscapes.

Our complete Saskatchewan archive remains the best place to discover the full collection of daily journals, photographs, itineraries, planning resources, birding observations, and reflections. We invite you to begin wherever your interests lead you, whether among the dunes of Good Spirit Lake, along the Qu'Appelle Valley, beside the South Saskatchewan River, or in the rolling landscapes of the province's northwest.

For us, Saskatchewan was the eighth province of a journey that would eventually carry us across Canada and north to the Arctic Ocean. When we reached the Alberta border in autumn 2021, we had discovered that the Canadian Prairies were far more complicated, varied, and beautiful than the simple images of endless flat fields that we had once imagined.

From Saskatchewan, we invite you to continue exploring our journey into Alberta, where the eastern Prairies would gradually give way to the foothills and Rocky Mountains, introducing yet another very different chapter of the Trans Canada Trail.

Thank you for joining us, whether you followed our Saskatchewan journey in 2021 or are discovering #Hike4Birds for the first time.

See you on the trail!