Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park – Camping

June 2021

Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park is located 45 minutes north of Swift Current on Lake Diefenbaker. Sask Landing offers hiking, beach, playgrounds, golf, mini golf, boating, fishing, equestrian camping, and I’m sure there’s more.

Our first camping trip of summer 2021 – 4 nights, the maiden voyage for our new in 2006 tent trailer.

We were tired before we even left.

It took approximately 8 hours to pack the vehicle. I keep telling myself it’ll get better, but with S still being little she really needs the extra gear. We were engineering a way to fit everything in the most strategic and efficient way.

• Hiking backpack – definitely needed. We completed all 3 hikes that Sask Landing offers. This ended up being S’s nap time.
• Stroller – Needed for S to go to sleep. A couple laps each night and she was out.
• Bikes – fun for the kids to bike to the playground or do laps around the campground loop.

We booked a site at the Riverside campground loop for a few reasons:

• Smaller and quieter – The kids need to work on a lot of safety items (road safety, bike safety, water safety, fire safety), so the less traffic the better. We could see the playground from our site, so they could also play independently when we were making meals or cleaning up (except S , she cannot be trusted).
• Trees – The opposite of lakeside sites seemed to be more treed than the other campground loops. The sites were close together and tagged as semi-private which was an accurate description of our site.
• The view/ beach access – we chose a site on the opposite of the lakide – once again for safety. The water was low, so it would be quite a jaunt for the kids to make it to the water. The beach was accessible and nice for beach toy play. Looking at the lake and the rolling hills in golden hour was a treat every night.

The Riverside loop had a brand new service centre that was shared with the Nighthawk campground. The service centre and other washrooms were all very clean.

We didn’t really have any plans other than that I wanted to complete all the hikes. It worked out that we would do a hike each day (in the morning- this is when they are their best selves) and the kids would could choose the afternoon activity. We chose to do the hikes from the longest to shortest. The kids definitely struggled on some parts of all of them. They might hate hiking when they are older.

On our first full day we completed the Prairie Vista Trail in the morning, and went to the beach in the afternoon. There was not a soul in site at the beach. The Cottonwood beach area is beautiful. There are large trees, green space, and a playground. The water was low, so for us it was more of a muddy bottom, but there is lovely sand and it would be prime as the water rises. The kids didn’t care and still played.

Our second day we completed the Ruts and Remnants trail. Their afternoon activity choice was marina mini golf. Ty had the brilliant idea of biking there. It took an hour to bike 4.5 km to the marina. The trail path through the campground to the marina was great, but a lot of work (hilly) for the kids (especially after the morning hike). We have learned that mini golf isn’t usually fun for us with the children, and this time wasn’t any different. S had a death grip on my ball and club as she walked the course. The boys would skip ahead or play all the balls. Ty and I cannot have a friendly competition in these conditions!

I didn’t think we would ever make it back from the longest bike ride of my life. We stopped at the store for ice cream and energy. 3 km hiked, and 9 km biked was a lot, they were exhausted. We were quite proud of them.

On our final full day, also Father’s Day, the kids slept in (must have been that 12 km of activity the day before). We completed the Ridges and Ravines trail, and had to have celebratory ice cream as we completed the final trail. S also lost her hat somewhere along the way, so I had the pleasure of completing the hike twice – good news – found her hat. We played in the sand at the Riverside Campground in the afternoon.

One thing we do when visiting provincial parks is check out all the campgrounds. It’s usually a time where the kids also sleep, and they (we) need that. We were checking out the equestrian campgrounds for horses and to my surprise there were a few! We checked again the next day and counted 15 horses. We went out to say hello to them, and also caught a family returning from a trail ride, so we said hi to them (and their horses too).

Campground Summaries:

The Bearpaw and Sagebrush camp sites had some trees, were more open, but also more spacious. There’s a loop in Sagebrush that houses some treed- and private sites. I imagine those are a hot commodity. Bearpaw sites along the water were nice. There was also a small campground beach area. Nighthawk campground was quiet, fewer sites, fairly open. The service centre is shared with the Riverside Campground.

Bison Hollow and Prairie Meadow are closer the main beach area along the water. Quite open, some trees. Prairie Meadows offers group camping sites. There are no showers in these areas.

If you have any questions regarding Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park please reach out in the contact me section.

Information from Sask Tourism is linked here.