Cypress Hills IP to Dinosaur PP (AB)

After the thunderstorms, we woke up to find that power was out in the campground at Cypress. We decided to leave fairly quickly to avoid witnessing the second Cypress Hills Massacre - one triggered by hardcore RVers discovering the lack of ability to watch satellite TV and take hot showers.

We made a quick detour to visit the Cypress Hills Vineyard and Winery - the only such establishment in Saskatchewan. We would have loved to stay and sample their offerings over lunch on the patio but the kids preferred a tour of the grounds and our wine taken to-go.

Soon after leaving Cypress we were into Alberta. I'll try not to make too many cheap jokes but we did get a laugh that you know you're in Alberta when the stop signs have bullet holes in them. We cruised quickly through Medicine Hat (aka "Gas City" and home to the world's largest teepee apparently) and onto what has to be the most mind-numbing piece of driving on the planet: Highway 1 from Medicine Hat to Brooks. Brutal. Just brutal. Saskatchewan ain't got nothing on this piece of flat-and-boring road.

Leaving the Trans Canada at Brooks it was a short trek to Dinosaur and some amazing landscape. Definitely a must-see. However, we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked because of the vicious wildlife. The dire warnings of scorpions, rattlesnakes and black widow spiders were nothing compared to the reality of the worst, most relentless swarms of mosquitoes we'd seen so far on this trip. These mosquitoes treated 23% deet like it was a condiment.

We attempted to console ourselves by sampling the wines we'd bought while watching people run by the van pursued by clouds of bugs. Tragically, we found out why Cypress Hills is likely to remain the only winery in Saskatchewan. Both the red and honey mead were basically undrinkable. We even tried taking a cue from the bugs and mixing with deet to see if that improved the taste. No such luck.

~ A