A Daytrip To The Badlands

Watching the snow melt has been very good for my soul.  I knew it would be.

This morning, in celebration of Spring's arrival, I packed my backpack full of hiking gear, prepared a  sandwich, some fruits, and a litre of water, and got in my lovely Jetta, headed for Castle Butte, a clay "castle" in south-central Saskatchewan.

The drive was pleasant: 2 hours, mostly rolling hills, past Coronach, and to the area known as the Badlands.  The scenery is not sexy like the coast mountains, forests, or ocean, but it's beautiful and attractive in its own subtle way.  Beauty perhaps not expressed in terms of power and strength, but rather, gentleness and serenity.  Lovely hills and valleys.  Lakes.  Clouds with personality and character unseen and unknown in coastal places.

And upon arrival at the Badlands, again, another form of beauty.  Vast.  Immense.  Present.

Once near the Butte, I parked my car, and went for a hike, first to the Butte, then on along the dirt road.  I noticed that unlike in BC where tourism is everywhere - it's part and parcel of daily life in many places - today I felt that perhaps it was a novelty, for people to see someone walking around with a pack on his back.

The prime example of this was when, while walking, the owner of the property (Castle Butte is located on private property, another thing which baffles me) stopped her truck and asked me what I was doing.  Ummmm .. hiking?

Anyways, I did in the end hike about 7kms.  It felt so good.  Refreshing.  Invigorating.  I ate my lunch on top of a hill, overlooking the endless valley.  I prayed and read my Bible. 

Thick, dark clouds eventually rolled in and threatened to open up their vast water vaults, so I got up and began my journey back to the car.  It did rain on my way back, but only for a very short period of time, probably not even 10 minutes.  Luckily for me, the vaults of heaven did not open fully.  The clouds rolled on, saving their liquid blessings for some other place.

On my way back home I stopped at a few places to take more pictures.  More lakes.  More valleys.  More green.  I don't seem to get tired of taking pictures.

I got home near 7pm.  It was still warm and sunny outside.  Spring is definitely here.  I can't wait for summer.