As I’ve written in an earlier post, I’ve found myself slowly but surely reconnecting with the wonderful world of astronomy. But being a backyard astronomer has it’s limitations thanks to dumb, selfish humans insisting on polluting the night skies with horrible, fugly lighting. Luckily, a few people have made the effort to preserve the odd patch of land not just in an attempt to keep light pollution at bay but also to preserve the land and animals on their terms, not ours. For those who either study or simply enjoy nature, these places are a wonderland. A place where one can spend the days reveling in the scenery and take in breathtaking night skies sounded awfully good to me!

Grasslands National Park is divided in two: the East Block and the West Block. Established in 1981, the two blocks are at the southern most end of Saskatchewan and runs along the Canadian/US border. I only began hearing more about this park in the last 10 years as in seems that only in the last while, Parks Canada is investing more in ‘civilizing’ the park. This can be good or bad depending on perspective but clearly, there’s still interest in conservation with several animal species being reintroduced into the West Block. In 2009, Grasslands became one of the largest dark sky preserves in Canada and is apparently considered to be the darkest skies in North America. As soon as I was reminded that there was a star party in May hosted by the 2 Saskatchewan centres of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, I knew I had to go check it out.

I arrived at the East Block on Thursday May 25th. Admittedly not the best idea I’ve ever had since the weather really wasn’t cooperating that day but I didn’t grumble too much since it was all still better than last year’s attempt at spring camping. The current camping situation is at Rock Creek campground and is pretty minimal with just a few small nooks to pitch a tent next to the camp office but the grounds are currently being redone to open things up for more camping with more amenities. Those spots are to be open to the public later this summer. You also have the option of sleeping in one of 3 teepees which I am absolutely going to have to do next time. Several “oTENTiks” are going up as well but having done canvas tent camping in the past, not sure how well those are going to fare on the windy prairies. (Canvas is heavy and the sound of the tent flapping in the wind is a little much for some.) Besides the park office, there’s a shelter with barbecues, tables, and plenty of power outlets to plug in both 120V small appliances and USB outlets for phones. That last one was much appreciated as cell reception is almost nil in the valley and you waste a lot of power just looking for a hot spot to check messages. (Yes, I know that I should have been relaxing instead of sending texts but when you camp alone, it’s not a bad idea to check in once and awhile!) Of course, there’s also a washroom of sorts. It was indeed just an outhouse but clean and relatively stench free as far as outhouses go.

 

My first night was quiet. Okay, quiet isn’t exactly accurate. There weren’t too many people around and I was a bit tired so I just walked around a little to get my bearings and watch the birdy soap opera that the barn swallows put on for me at the shelter then hid in my tent reading for the rest of the evening. The wind, on the other hand, made it anything but a quiet night! I thought that having grown up in Saskatchewan, I’d be used to wind but that weekend was a whole other experience. I was told after that while the grounds are indeed windier than many places, that weekend was more extreme than usual. When you decide to camp in the spring, you have to expect crazy weather.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of chirping, howling, squawking, and all sorts of other wildlife noises. Even with earplugs, these sounds – at 4:50am I might add – were as clear as a bell. With Rock Creek being just behind me, I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised. What did surprise me was the sounds of some kind of big bird buzzing the top of my tent! Not a fun sound to hear when you’re half asleep! Eventually, I got up and was excited to see a clear sky and no wind. I even managed to pull out my telescope for a bit of solar observing. That didn’t last long though and once the clouds came back and made me put my stuff away, I headed up one of the hills for a little hiking.

The most important thing to know about the East Block is that while it’s considered to be more of a hiking area, the majority of trails aren’t really marked. I kind of knew this before I left and made sure to have a good GPS with me but I was quite prepared for the lack of marking either. Luckily, the Rock Creek Trail I took on Friday morning was one of the few with some for of markings. Full of wildflowers, this easy 2.5 km trail takes you up the side of the valley to give you some beautiful views of the grounds. Unfortunately for me, being high above the ground hiking in the wind didn’t exactly do much for my head. Not having a place to hang my hammock, I ended up spending the afternoon laying down in my tent being watched over by my gopher neighbour.

Slowly, more people arrived but alas, even they couldn’t chase the clouds away. And once it became clear that I wasn’t going to see stars that night either, I retreated to the communal campfire that was being manned by one of the Parks Canada people. I admit that I’ve been somewhat antisocial over the past few months but it was actually quite fun to gather with strangers and warm up next to a fire on a cold May night. I know I sound like a New Age hippy but fresh air and dirt on the ground is so cleansing for the soul. It’s strange how a campfire can trigger something so deep in us. Of course, it was a damn cold night so that probably had more to do with it that anything else. But remember what I just said about the stars? The skies actually did clear for about a half an hour. I was too warm to run out into the cold and go grab my astronomical binoculars but from the little I saw, the skies there are magnificent. Even at 10pm there were more stars in the sky than you see in the city at 2am. It was glorious and I was getting really anxious for Saturday night.

The Parks Canada guy told us at the campfire that he would be leading a hike on Saturday morning that would lead us to dinosaur bones and quicksand. Yes, you read that right – quicksand…in Saskatchewan! I and a young couple took him up on the offer and up to the park gate we went. From there we hiked a bit along the valley and down we went. Descending downward into the badlands, it’s hard to miss the layer cake look of the hills. For those geologists reading this, the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary is very visible. And that’s the point where one could see numerous fossils laying around. We continued on with our very knowledgeable guide pointing out all sorts of interesting things. Eventually, we came to what was left of a Triceratops femur. I also learned at this point that if you lick a bone, it should stick a bit to your tongue. My background in microbiology made that little adventure a wee bit too scary to take so instead I just did the wet finger to the bone thing to test the tackiness. Not sure where or when that tidbit of information will come in handy but definitely some cool random trivia anyway! And that was not the only dinosaur to be found either. There’s a bit of Tyrannosaurus rex down there and another triceratops too. Several Evening Primroses were also on display which was awesome to see since this is a flower that only blooms for 12 hours then fades away. Our timing couldn’t have been more perfect though because they were everywhere. Luckily, the same couldn’t be said for that quicksand which seemed to be mostly in one area. It really is quite deceptive though. Where the underground spring is, it’s pretty obvious but the still dangerous surrounding area looks fairly normal. Standing on it is like standing on a mattress; kind of springy but one wrong step and you’re in big trouble. Not that you’d be sucked under like the movies but with no shower facilities in the park yet, none of us really felt like pushing our luck. So instead, we just poked the quicksand with our hiking sticks. Mine is still covered in the sandy clay goop.

Once again though, my body rebelled to the little bit of exercise and I had to spend part of my afternoon napping again which is not exactly a bad thing since I was on vacation but I would have liked to have done more. One thing I did manage to do was to go find my first geocache! I always loved the idea of a giant scavenger hunt but the GPS locator on my phone drains the battery way too much. Handheld GPS devices are expensive but since I knew I was heading to Grasslands and am hoping to do more wandering this summer, I decided to splurge and bought that pricey GPS. For one reason or another, I didn’t get out in town to find any caches but it was something I definitely wanted to try at Grasslands. There are currently 4 geocaches in the East Block (I think there are also 5 kid-friendly geocaches too). I knew that 2 were out of reach for this trip but after getting the locations, I went in search of my first. Right off the bat, I realized that this might be more frustrating than I thought. The GPS is a bit annoying as there’s a lag between when you turn and when the locator changes direction. But the GPS can only get you close. Then the hunt begins and that can be a bit frustrating when you’re standing in the middle of a grassy field. But YAY, I saw the box…eventually! And for my effort, I even got a coin! Well, you’re given the opportunity to buy the coin but for finding my first cache, I was more than happy to break out the wallet.

The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting with some of the others who had come for the star party too. The two Grasslands star parties (this one in May and the West Block in July) are quite informal compared to the main event in Cypress Hills Provincial Park in August. There’s definitely pros and cons to this but I certainly appreciated having a bit more time to myself as opposed to spending my holiday indoors listening to talks and having to volunteer for events. A couple of interesting talks after dinner and we were ready to go out and wait for darkness to descend as the clouds began to break. It was hard not to be excited.

Then the news broke that there had been a powerful solar burst meaning that we were likely to see the Aurora borealis. In other words, natural light pollution was going to hit the Earth. Obviously, some of the astronomers were disappointed. A crisp, clear, unpolluted sky is one of the great wonders of the world. My first trip to the Cypress Hills Star Party was heart stopping. It was the first time seeing truly dark skies and with the promise of the East Block of Grasslands being even darker than that, I understand some of the disappointment. Such a great opportunity to show the public something incredible that’s rapidly vanishing is an important part of conservation. But the show we were treated to wasn’t exactly a waste either! The Northern Lights are also an amazing experience and one that is also disappearing thanks to light pollution. As a kid, I remember them quite clearly. We saw all sorts of colours and patterns. I was so accustomed to seeing them that I began to take them for granted. When my German exchange partner was visiting in the fall of 1996, she asked what those weird lights in the sky were. I looked and said, “Meh, they’re just the Northern Lights.” as if it was a totally normal thing to see. And it once was. Not anymore. Now they’re faint in our neighbourhood and it’s sad. The best light show our planet produces and it’s disappeared because…well, I still have trouble understanding why this is an area where we insist on being so wasteful with light and energy. But sitting in that valley with an almost uninterrupted view of the skies, it was magical.

I’m still learning to use my new camera. Unfortunately, I haven’t been practicing enough. Many of my scenery photos were overexposed. Clearly, I picked up too many bad habits with my old camera as I often had to overcompensate for some of the limitations of that older model. It was a blast shooting the auroras though. Astrophotography has always scared me. The equipment is expensive and like most areas of photography these days, people can be quite harsh towards those who might not have the ‘right’ gear or prefer to not edit pictures so severely that they no longer look the way the event did. I have a lot to learn and relearn but hopefully, I’ll have the chance to do more soon.

Before leaving on Sunday, I drove down towards a place called Poverty Ridge which is a farm where the Parks Canada people stay for the summer. I had planned to do a bit more hiking this time at the south end of the badlands but once again, the wind howled a bit too hard and I decided that driving home with my head pounding probably wouldn’t be the best idea. But now that I’ve had a taste of this wonderful park, I can’t wait to go back!