Douglas Provincial Park is located on the southeast corner of Lake Diefenbaker and is home to a campground, visitor centre with exhibitions from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, and hiking trails through prairie vistas, aspen groves, along the lakeshore, and to active sand dunes.  With my friend Jamee moving back to Ottawa after 8 months of Saskatchewan living, we decided to drive out to the park and hike to the dunes to catch the sunset.

We left Saskatoon a little later than we hoped and arrived at the park close to 8pm.  The office was closed by this point in the evening so I'll have to remember to pay double for my park permit next time I visit.  We parked in the lot by the nature centre on the northeast side of Highway 19, just across from the campground entrance and made our way along the Dunes Trail.  Taking our time to take photos and read informational signs, the easy 2.5 KM hike to the sand dunes took us about 45 minutes.  We reached our destination just as the sun was setting and were in awe by the sky the entire time.

We spent another three quarters of an hour exploring the Dunes before making our way back to the parking lot.  It was getting quite dark on our return so we were happy to have packed head lamps to help us watch our step along the trail.

Our trip made for a quick adventure but was packed full with beautiful views and plenty of opportunity to spot wildlife.  Birds and bugs were in abundance and I even caught a glimpse of a deer just as we approached the dunes.  It’s well worth the trip from the city!    

Click above to view a video from our evening or below to have a look at some photographs.

Music in the video is by my very talented friend Matt Epp who, by the way, just won a prestigious international songwriting award for his latest song The Sound which he co-wrote with Winnipeg high schooler Faouzia.