The Home of a Hockey Hero

Wednesday, June 20th – Val Marie to Mossbank, Saskatchewan - Day 159 

 The morning in Val Marie consisted of packing up our trailer before hitting the road. We needed to stop at the visitor centre in town because the ranger had promised the kids special prizes for completing their explorer books. John got a blue marker that he used to colour all over his legs. Aisling and Charlotte got paddles with a bouncy ball attached. The last stop in town was to the arena to see the trophy case erected in honour of Brian Trottier. They had pictures, jerseys and Stanley Cup rings (that had us questioning their authenticity) on display. 

 We started driving east across Hwy 18 to get to the west side of the park. A two-hour drive over a paved but bumpy road was broken up by a stop for gas in McCord. There aren’t a ton of gas stations in rural Saskatchewan and most of them are card locks requiring a special card. We gassed up, visited the outside of a train museum, and found a little park to have a lunch of rice and beans.

With the day getting away from us, we continued. We originally had a plan to see the east side of Grasslands National Park, then see Moose Jaw and Regina but it was already 2pm. Our bumpy drive turned into a gravel road that was wide enough for a car and a bit before there were slanted sides leaning towards the ditch. The hills where you couldn’t see over the top had Gen worried about oncoming traffic. Earlier she had driven over a hill to find a harvester taking up the road on the other side. The dust and rocks we kicked up seeped through the trailer wheel well and into our cupboards. We also found another light had been broken, we suspect because of the rocks. 

We reached the park and stopped for a quick walk to a tipi near the visitor centre. There were also more plastic cattle to rope. A family was loading up their backpacks to camp in the prairies on an overnight hike, some day we will do the same. The highlight of the east side of the park is the Badlands drive; a scenic drive along the ridge of a valley that looks over rock formations where dinosaur fossils have been found. We were told we could explore wherever we wanted as long as we watch for rattlesnakes. 

We drove to the end of the drive and stopped for a hike. We walked to a viewpoint but then decided to continue on into the valley to climb a rock formation. It was a fun hike with no trail to follow, there were wildflowers, prickly pear cacti and we identified the three different types of grasses present in the park.

Back in the car we hit three viewpoints. The kids were disinterested so they stayed in the car (or on the car in case of Charlotte, even though we’ve told them not to go on the car). We took pictures of scenic valleys. Our final stop was to a spot that supposedly had fossils that you had to explore to find. We walked down into the valley, over and around barren dirt hills which was fun but we couldn’t find any fossils. Aisling, Charlotte, John and I took the road less travelled and climbed some steep hills on the way back to the car. 

 When we picked up the trailer from the grassy lot where we had left it, I noticed one tire needed air. There was no gas station or services nearby. Next trip, we bring a portable air compressor. We got past the gravel road but after thirty minutes down the bumpy paved road I heard something but thought it was just more gravel hitting the trailer. Another couple hundred metres later, I realized there was something wrong and saw a bent rim was the only thing left on the right side of the trailer. I started changing the tire. We had six out of eight cars that passed stop to ask if we needed help. Gen dished out dinner. A very nice pair of farmers stopped by for a chat as well. 

With the spare changed, we were back on the road except our battery was dead. Luckily, we had purchased the Reactor and our little battery box jumped the car without a problem. The time taken to change the tire meant that the sun was setting when we continued. We couldn’t make it to Moose Jaw and settled into a dirt road commuter lot for the night.