Adventure Canada

There's nowhere like Canada for adventure travel. The world's second-largest country takes in glacier-topped peaks, polar tundra and sun-soaked prairies on an epic scale. Wildlife-lovers are spoilt for choice and the spectrum of activities is endless - from wild camping and multi-day hikes to placid paddles and road trips dotted with luxe lodges

- By Sarah Barrell, Karen Gardiner, Georgia Stephens, Emma Thomson

EYEWITNESS

PLAINS SPEAKING

In Saskatchewan's Wanuskewin Heritage Park, bison are a vital piece of the indigenous cultural history and have been brought back from the brink to help rewild fragile grasslands. Words: Karen Gardiner

Dr Ernie Walker has heard enough tired takes on Saskatchewan’s flat landscape. “A lot of people refer to the prairies as big and empty or useless,” he says, indignant, as he leads me around Wanuskewin Heritage Park, an archaeological site and cultural centre 15 minutes from the Saskatchewan capital of Saskatoon. “That’s not it. What’s significant about the prairies is that it’s subtle.”

Standing under a big blue sky, amid dry rolling grassland that stretches uninterrupted all the way to the horizon, I think I understand the misconception: lacking mountains and with sparse trees, this isn’t exactly the type of landscape that wallops you with its dramatic features. But if there’s anyone who can convincingly argue for the value of this place, it’s Walker.

The park’s founder and chief archeologist, Walker has spent four decades with his hands in Wanuskewin’s dirt, turning up artefacts — including stone and bone tools, amulets and even gaming pieces — that have whispered to him stories of this land’s significance. Working here as a ranch hand in the early 1980s, he convinced his boss that the land had great archaeological importance. That slowly set in motion the park’s establishment, which involved a rare-for-the-time collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.