We Saved The Best For Last
Our last stop on the first leg of our cross-Canada camping journey
Days 14–16
My favourite spot thus far was the last one we visited: Duck Mountain Provincial Park.
As we entered the park, I spotted a Moose wading into a marshy area, enjoying some of the grasses in the water. Although white tailed deer are very common in Manitoba, seeing Moose is quite rare.
Our site was a walk-in site, so we had to carry all of our things down a steep hill and across a bridge. When you’re camping and living out of your car, you think you don’t have a lot of stuff. That is, until you have to carry it all down a steep hill and across a bridge.
This isn’t like the days when we carried all our gear in a single backpack while back-country camping or canoeing.
It was so worth it though.
Waterfront property
The view we had at our campsite is something for which most people pay over $200/night, to stay in a fancy cabin with all the modern conveniences.
We had a beautiful, private site surrounded by trees, right on the water. It was protected enough that it wasn’t too windy, but there was a lovely breeze coming up from the lake.
We even had a resident Buck! Two Bucks, in fact, and a doe who bedded down right beside the bridge and wandered the edges of our site munching on leaves.
We also had weather warm enough for a beach day, so we spent some time playing in the sand and splashing on the waves.
My inner child made another appearance, and I spent quite a bit of time working on a sand turtle and a trench to create a little “river” that wound its way from my turtle back down to the lake.
In fact, I continued working on this well after my son had moved on to something else — (also not the first time that’s happened).
Tips for families traveling to Duck Mountain
A funny thing kept happening. It seemed any time I walked past the bathrooms, someone would be standing there holding their phone in the air, or walking around the bathrooms looking at their screen.
I quickly realized people were trying to get cell service.
But why?!
Okay, I know why. People are addicted to their devices. I am usually on my laptop every day, writing and posting, so I can’t really judge — (well I can, it’s just hypocritical).
There’s no cell service in Duck Mountain. I guess if you walk around with your phone in the air long enough, you might get one bar, but there’s essentially no cell service in Duck Mountain, and it’s one of my favourite features of the park.
Also, Blue Lakes campground’s tent sites are absolutely gorgeous. They’re rustic sites amongst beautiful mature black spruce trees. Some things to keep in mind if staying there are there is no swimming at that particular waterfront, and the closest bathrooms are outhouses up a small hill.
The body of water to the West of the campsites is great for fishing and boating. It’s fun for kids to play along the rocky shore, but there’s no beach, and there are a lot of leeches in that waterway.
It’s not far to the main beach and playground areas, but you may prefer to drive, as the route is via the main road.
Heading home
So here ends part one of our summer-long road trip! We’ll go home to shower (we are all dirty and stinky), then prepare for the next leg of our journey. You can follow along here.
Happy summer!
Update
After arriving home and showering, we heard a tornado warning for Duck Mountain Provincial Park and surrounding areas. Seems like we were extremely lucky with weather this time around. Hoping everyone still out there stays safe!
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
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