Prairie Vista Trail

June 2021

The Prairie Vista Trail is the longest of three hikes at Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park – 3.5 km including a spur to the lookout.

This was by far my favourite trail. The vegetation was every shade of green, and so lush.

We thought for sure it was going to rain on us, thankfully it did not – we were not prepared.

So we missed the tiny arrow on the sign pointing us in the direction that we should gone in, so we did this trail backwards. We figured this out when the we made it to the “first” trail sign, it noted something about “the end of the trail”, it was too late, we were committed.

Doing the trail backwards really led to this magical “a ha” moment. We were walking up a hill with no idea what was beyond it, and boom – the most beautiful coulee. We stopped here for a few moments to really soak it all in (I might have been the only one soaking it in). This is also the point where you can carry on with the loop or hike up to the lookout. (Insert Paw Patrol quote here).

“Paw Patrol, to the lookout! Ryder needs us!”

Paw Patrol Pup

The spur is only 700 m (one way – all incline). The spur felt like 700 kms. P was really struggling at this point. M really struggled on the descent – in his words “I only like climbing up things, not down”.

S enjoyed a trail nap for most of the hike.

We read every word on every sign of the trails. You can then look for the vegetation or animals noted on the signs to keep it interactive for the kids. Despite not being listed, P was on the look out for coyotes. We also came across these really neat “ant crossings”. The ants had made ant sized trenches that crossed the trail path.

The trail was quiet, we crossed paths with only 2 people. I recorded the hike and we completed 3.65 km in 1 hour 40 min ish (3-4 snack breaks).