When people think of Saskatchewan, they normally think of it as flat expanses with lots of snow. While this is often the case, it makes certain winter sports quite accessible, such as snowshoeing and cross country skiing. Unfortunately, snow isn’t as common in parts of Saskatchewan as in other places, so do check the weather reports before you head out. If you really want to go, there should be somewhere in the province that will have snow. Check out the map below for some of the areas.
Cross Country Skiing in Saskatchewan
Topography of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
One of the more interesting places to visit is Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, straddling the Alberta / Saskatchewan border. The highest point between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains, Cypress Hills has geography, geology and biology unique to the area. This means that you can cross country ski in the hills when you often can’t in nearby areas. As always with winter sports, do check ahead to see if they have snow. That corner of the province gets the least amount of precipitation, but often by Christmas time, there’s enough snow on the ground for snowshoeing and cross country skiing.
Attractions at Cypress Hills
The majority of places that you can stay are within the bounds of the map below. There are some nice cabins that you can rent in the winter that you can pretty much ski, snowshoe or snowmobile out of – but you can get your car up on the other side as well. There are no trails marked here because it seemed that you could ski almost anywhere. We skiied on the lakes, through summer-only campgrounds, next to roads, anywhere that there was enough snow. Our preferences were anywhere with trees, so that the trees sheltered us from the wind. The snowmobilers also tend to go on the lakes more often so we steered clear.
Make sure that you have a map to get out to the park, since it’s a fairly isolated but beautiful place.
A Topographical Map of the Townsite of Cypress Hills Provincial Park
Custom Maps of Cypress Hills with MapSherpa
With MapSherpa you can create your own custom map of Cypress Hills Provincial Park for the for the area you plan go ski. Just search for Cypress Hills, and click on the result which will take you to a topographic map of the park that you can customize.
