What's Actually Worth Your Time Around Here

Somebody at a Christmas party last year told me the northern lights were "hit or miss" up here, said with the flat disappointment of a man who'd expected a light show on demand. That's the wrong way to think about most of this region. The good stuff doesn't perform for you. You show up, and sometimes it delivers, and the not-showing-up is the actual failure.

So. A short list, opinions included.

Kleskun Hill Natural Area gets called badlands, which oversells it slightly, but the hoodoos and the prickly pear cactus fifteen minutes from the city limits still catch people off guard every single time. Go in late June before the grass browns out. Skip the interpretive signs if you've read them once.

Saskatoon Mountain isn't a mountain. It's the highest point around, which in this country counts for something, and on a clear night the sky up there does more work than any planetarium. Bring a blanket, bring patience, leave the phone flashlight off — that's the whole trick to seeing the aurora and almost nobody follows it.

Dunvegan deserves more than the drive-through most people give it. The suspension bridge across the Peace, the old mission buildings sitting in that river valley like they've got nowhere else to be — it's a twenty-minute stop that people turn into an hour once they're standing there. The valley view alone is worth the gas.

Muskoseepi Park is the one locals stop seeing, which is the problem. Sixty-some kilometres of trail through the middle of the city, and most of us only use the half-kilometre near our own house. Walk the whole loop once a year. Bear Creek Reservoir at the centre of it freezes solid enough for skating by the time the light's gone by five, and there's something to be said for a rink you didn't have to build a Zamboni for.

The farmers' market in summer is fine. It's crowded, the good vendors sell out early, and everyone acts surprised by this every June like it