Saskatoon SK to Yorkton SK

It felt like we had a busy day today. We stayed at a Saskatoon Walmart last night and had a good quiet night there, then headed over to Pleasure-Way. We were early for our 9:30 tour, but since we were the only tourists scheduled, Grant started our tour about 9.

The place was sure busy this morning. Lots of vans in the works. We had a really good 2 hr tour, very interesting. I think Pleasure-Way does make a good solid product. Not leading edge technology really, mostly the tried-and-true. No pictures, we didn't want to make them think we were spies from "that other van company" in Ontario. (Our son-in-law works at Road Trek in Kitchener).

After the tour we headed out of town, with a detour in to a Costco we came across. Can't beat their lunch prices. A beautiful clear day.

We kept seeing potash mines with huge piles of what we guessed were tailings beside the mine buildings. The town of Lanigan museum was featuring a Potash exhibit, so we stopped to find out some more. The short video and posters were mostly about the company, but it gave a sense for the mining process.

The museum did have a couple of samples of potash "nuggets" on display:

This one was the size of a big fist

This one was a lot larger

Mostly though, the potash is extracted from the ore that is mined underground and sent to the surface. Those huge piles were indeed the waste product from the extracted potash, and will be used someday (?) to backfill the mine tunnels. The Lanigan mine has about 500 miles (!) of tunnels under there, and is very active.

The museum did have some local history on display too:

Fur coats. Third from left is red fox fur.

Whadda ya mean Historical? Geez, this looked very familiar!

 

We passed lots of prairie sloughs today. Water levels are still high. When coming west we tried to get to viewing areas on the Quill lakes and couldn't because levels were too high. Same thing today, but high water levels meant lots of sloughs (prairie landlocked ponds) with much bird life.

Black-headed birds are Franklin's Gull, not terns like we first thought

A large Heron cruises by

Yep, water levels are high (that's a silo)

A prairie Inukshuk

We're camped for the night at the Yorkton city campground. We wanted some luxury tonight (like running water and hot showers).

A little campground display

 

We did drive past the Yorkton branch of the Western Development Museum today, but didn't stop in, as it was getting late in the day. It specializes in Transportation, with an enormous quantity of antique machinery outside under cover. Apparently they also have a small working train with 1/4 mile of track.

Along the way going west and coming back east now, we had seen a couple of places along the highway warning of moose. It surprised us there would be "in the wild" moose around here as it just didn't feel like moose country, so asked at a tourist info place. Yes indeed, there is a moose population in places around the area. They live in the woods mostly, and the sloughs give them the water they need. We haven't seen any, although we did see a whole field of llamas today, a breeding herd with several young ones.

While we were at the Foam Lake tourist info asking about moose, an older couple pulled in with a Hymer travel van. Of course we had to ask them how they liked it. They are from Switzerland, had picked up their rental in Cambridge Ont (not sure where) and were on their way to Vancouver and BC. An adventurous trip for them!

Another easy-to-follow route today along the TCH#16 Yellowhead route: