Tag: moose-jaw

My day in Moose Jaw

August 20, 2025

It took all day to get here and I arrived just before nightfall so I spent the next day exploring Moose Jaw. As I often do, I started at the Visitor Centre.

Above is a version of the Snowbirds jet. The Snowbirds are Canada’s precision flying team (like the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels in the US). They are based at CFB Moose Jaw, a large military base a few miles south of town. Moose Jaw has a reputation for clear weather in the summer so it is a perfect training ground for pilots to practice their skills.

And that is Mac the Moose, here for obvious reasons.

When I went inside I was greeted by a more lively mascot of sorts. Say hello to Cheese the cat.

Get it? Mac and Cheese?

This was one of the displays in the Visitor Centre.

It promotes a tour of real tunnels underneath the city. There are two theories for the existence of these tunnels. One is that they housed Chinese-Canadians who were forced to live underground. There is no real proof of that but is there is documentation for Chinese business owners having lived here many years ago.

The second theory is more widely embraced. Chicago mob boss Al Capone is alleged to have used the tunnels for hiding alcohol, prostitutes and promoting gambling here during Prohibition. Again, no documented proof of that but it has kind of taken on a life of its own. Many of my Airbnb hosts thus far have mentioned it if I told them that I was planning to come here.

Other displays featured the importance of the railroad (two different national rail lines pass through here), agriculture in the community, and promoted various sports teams, notably the Moose Jaw Warriors hockey team.

And of course, the Snowbirds.

Note that the Snowbirds logo is featured on the hockey player’s uniform above, as is part of their logo as well.

Moose Jaw is a nice town of a little more than 33,000 people and it seems to have held that level for at least 10 years. It is the 4th largest city in Saskatchewan. People who live here are called Moose Javians. Seriously. Betcha didn’t know that! (Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either).

As I stated earlier, it has embraced the urban legend of Al Capone having a connection to the town, and calls itself “Canada’s Most Notorious City”.

I went to the Temple Gardens Arena in town as it was listed as the location of the Moose Jaw Curling Centre. The day I was there, however, it appeared to be set up for hockey.

Moose Jaw did host the 2025 World Men’s Curling Championship, as well as the 2023 World Para Ice Hockey Championship, in this multi-use arena.

As I was driving back to my Airbnb (one of the nicest one’s I have stayed in) I drove through this coulee a short distance from the house.

A coulee is a French-Canadian term for a valley or depression. After my hostess explained that I realized I have driven through lots of them. Those photos are looking left and right from the lowest point on the, otherwise level, road.

Calgary, AB to Moose Jaw, SK

August 19, 2025

Today would be a driving day. I would be traveling from NW of Calgary, near the western edge of southern Alberta province (though it is relatively narrow at the south end), to Moose Jaw, in south-central Saskatchewan province, which is much wider. Google Maps said it would take about 6 3/4 hours without stops, and would be all 4-lane highway. I don’t call it the dreaded interstate because I am in Canada. If anything it would be interprovince, but the highways up here have treated me very well so I have no reason to attach the “dreaded” moniker to them.

This going to sound crazy but I have wanted to go to Moose Jaw since 1977, when the movie Slapshot came out. It was about a fictional minor league hockey team with a bunch of misfit players, and included, what some might call above average hockey rough play which really drew attention to the team. It included the three Hanson brothers and another player whose name I don’t recall. At some point in the movie the fact that the brothers were from Moose Jaw and the other from Saskatoon (or vice versa) was mentioned. Ever since then I have wanted to go to those two places.

This was the view out my bedroom window during the night near Calgary- the moon and two planets.

When my Airbnb hosts in Golden and Canmore learned of my plan to go to Saskatchewan they told me – be prepared for prairie and farmland. Once you get out of the Rockies it will be flat as can be. No worries – the same is true in the US.

Not a mountain in sight.

I stopped for lunch in Medicine Hat, AB, which was about halfway to my destination. The first thing I saw before I got off the highway was the World’s Largest Teepee.

Well, maybe not authentic but it makes a good photo op. There was some indigenous artwork on display.

I stopped at the nearby Visitor Centre for maps and brochures and had a nice conversation with one of the workers there. He convinced me that there was enough here to see that I would add it to my itinerary later in the trip. Because of the possible air quality issues I had downsized my original plan which had included a stop in Medicine Hat.

I had learned of a small racetrack and r/c aircraft flying field north of town and set out to check them out quickly before I got back on the road. Before I got there I saw a sign indicating that neighboring Redcliff, Alberta is the Greenhouse Capital of the Prairies.

I found both the racetrack and the r/c flying field right next to each other but both were closed on the day I was there.

Spectators Welcome so long as there is someone here! I won’t even post a photo of the race track since I couldn’t get very close. For those of you that don’t know me, car racing is one of my interests, and I used to fly r/c helicopters for a few years and always stop in if I see a flying field somewhere.

I also learned that Medicine Hat is nicknamed “Gas City” because of an abundance of natural gas underground, and I passed a few businesses which process it for transportation by rail.

As soon as I crossed into Saskatchewan I started to see evidence that it was, in fact, largely farmland.

Huge silos and grain elevators. And to give you an idea how big this one is, here is a photo with vehicles parked next to it (way down in the lower left hand corner).

Further up the road, another one:

Before I got to Moose Jaw I came to a large lake and noticed a raised observation platform:

The signage indicated that Reed Lake is a seasonal stopover for migratory birds. It is the second largest saline inland water body in Canada.

When I finally arrived in Moose Jaw I discovered that one can even get poutine at McDonald’s in Canada.

Poutine is basically french fries covered with cheese curds and brown gravy. I tried it a few years ago when I was in Quebec (where it originated) but it is not something I should really be eating…

I arrived at my Airbnb in Moose Jaw in the early evening. It was located several miles out in the country south of town, and I was treated to a magnificent sunset and, looking in another direction, storm clouds. It had been a beautiful day but storms were moving into the area. They basically went around us but because of the flat terrain I could see storms far away from where I was.

Seven city teaser post

I know, it has been a week since I posted anything substantial, and that was from way back near Vancouver. As usual, I am way behind but can assure you I am accumulating LOTS of photos.

Driving across southern Alberta province a few days ago, on my way to Moose Jaw, I decided I would post a few photos from each city I have stayed in since leaving Vancouver Island to whet your appetite for what is still to come.

HOPE, BC – I didn’t stay there but it provided some excitement early in my loooong drive to Cranbrook from east of Vancouver. There was an electronic sign next to the Trans Canada Highway warning of a wildfire ahead and telling drivers NOT to stop along the roadway. Well, it turns out the fire was on a hillside above a gas station I was already planning to stop at, where Route 3 branches off from the TCH to take me east across southern British Columbia, very close to the US/Canadian border. So I didn’t stop along the roadway, I stopped at a gas station off the exit.

This fire had been burning for about a month (and still is as I write this). It is quite small by wildfire standards but is stubborn due to the steep terrain on the hillside. While I was getting gas, a helicopter arrived about every 4 minutes to dump a large bucket of water on the hotspots, then flew off to a nearby water source to bring more. Imagine the pilot(s), doing that all day, every day.

That particular drop hit right on the “sweet spot” where I could see visible flames.

This was as close as I ever need to get to a wildfire.

CRANBROOK – After 12 hours in the car (with stops) I approached Cranbrook and got my first look at the southernmost Canadian Rockies. The sun was just setting as I could see the very impressive mountains in the distance. By the time I found a place to stop with a fairly clear view only one set of mountains were still getting sunlight and the others were now in full shade.

There was a third set of mountains further north that I could see but I couldn’t get a clear shot at them from this vantage point.

GOLDEN, BC – After spending two nights in Cranbrook I headed north to spend 6 nights in Golden, from which I would visit 6 National Parks.

This was from the drive towards Jasper NP, a huge Park which suffered considerable damage from a large wildfire last year. I drove over 3 hours north on the Icefield Parkway, and stopped at these two lakes and saw LOTS of mountains along the way:

The next day I drove west from Golden through (the Canadian) Glacier NP.

I would also go through Kootenay, Yoho, Mount Revelstoke and Banff National Parks from my base in Golden.

CANMORE, BC – Rather than staying in Banff proper I went 22 kilometers south to spend 4 nights in Canmore which is a very nice little town without the massive crowds that Banff experiences. I did make two early morning stops in Banff before the tour buses and RV’s started to arrive in the late mornings, and will post those photos later.

From Canmore I drove a long way south one day in an area known as Kananaskis Country (pronounced can-a-NASS-kiss):

As I was driving home, there were two full grown Bighorn Sheep in the road and traffic was stopped. Note the Park Ranger’s truck approaching behind the black car which was stopped.

The Ranger lit up the emergency lights and started honking the horn as the truck swerved around the stopped car, scaring the sheep over the guardrail and off the road.

CALGARY, AB – After 10 nights total in the Canadian Rockies I went west from Canmore to Calgary, the provincial capital of Alberta. There I found the huge Wonderland sculpture in front of a building on a busy city street:

And the Calgary Tower, similar to the CN Tower in Toronto, but shorter and designed to look like the Olympic torch (Calgary is another Canadian city which has hosted the Winter Olympics):

The tower used to dominate the skyline but is now dwarfed by many of the new skyscrapers downtown.

I apparently haven’t downloaded some of the other photos I took in Calgary which I had planned to include here but will post them later.

MOOSE JAW, SK – Three days ago I drove due east from Calgary for about 7 hours, across southern Alberta and into western Saskatchewan, to a town I have wanted to visit for a very long time.

I give you Mac the Moose:

He stands proudly outside the Visitor Centre in Moose Jaw. Inside the Visitor Centre I found his sidekick, Cheese the cat:

Get it? Mac and Cheese?

Next to Mac there was a replica of one of the Canadian Snowbirds jets.

The Snowbirds are Canada’s precision flying team and are based at the military airfield just outside of Moose Jaw. I saw their support truck twice on the highways as I went from town to town, and they just recently put on an airshow in Nanaimo, where I took the ferry from when I sailed from Vancouver Island to Vancouver city at the beginning of this trip.

REGINA, SK – Which brings me to where I am tonight. I didn’t get into town until noon, and stopped at the Visitor Centre for maps and brochures to add to what I had already found elsewhere. I went to a series of sports arenas, all gathered on one part of town, and drove to several nice city parks to enjoy the cooler weather. In one of them I found this rabbit, casually eating grass:

It’s hard to tell from the photo but he is huge – every bit as large as my 16-pound cat (Bigfoot) that I had when I lived in Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately I scared him as I tried to get closer and he used his long legs to run off.

I haven’t had a chance to really explore the city but I will review my notes when I get up in the morning and make a full day of it.

I hope this will hold you over until I have time to review, crop and organize more photos from all of these places.

Po-TAY-to, Po-TA-to

Real-time post, photo at the end.

Today I arrived in Regina, Saskatchewan, the capital of the province.

I have confirmed that the locals pronounce it re-JYE-na (sounds like a sensitive part of the female anatomy). I worked with someone in Pennsylvania who pronounced it re-GEE-na. Today I was even presented with a conflict between Google Maps and my “sometimes trusty” GPS 4.0. The GPS unit correctly pronounced it as the people who live here do, whereas Google Maps used the other pronunciation. I didn’t even bother to put in my two cents since neither device pays any attention to what I tell them.

This is as far east as I will be going in Canada on this trip. Regina is just west of the Montana/North Dakota border vertically, and is due north of Cheyenne, Wyoming and Denver, Colorado. When I entered the province two days ago on my way to Moose Jaw (which I can confirm IS two words) I crossed into the Central Time Zone. Almost all of British Columbia is in the Pacific Time Zone, save for Golden and Cranbrook, two towns I stayed in, and a strip of land west of the southernmost Canadian Rockies, which slant from NW to SE. Alberta province is in the Mountain Time Zone, and Saskatchewan is in Central. I also learned today that Sask (as the locals call it) does not play the Daylight Savings Time game. I was confused the two days I was in Moose Jaw because the time on my phone never changed, which it normally does automatically when I am in the US. Lo and behold, I should have just left Mountain time alone and not told my car that I was in CDT. MDT = CST.

I will be in Regina two nights, then head northwest to Saskatoon for two nights. I almost eliminated Saskatchewan from my itinerary altogether due to air quality issues from the wildfires in the northern part of the province. I checked the numbers every day before committing to reserving my Airbnb’s past Banff. About two weeks ago the numbers dropped to safe levels in all of the towns I was planning to stay in except one, presumably because they received a fair amount of rain which washed the smoke particles out of the air. I haven’t noticed any of the smoke “haze” the three days I have been in the province.

The only casualty from my original schedule is Prince Albert National Park, which is pretty far north from Regina, and which was very close to the fires and had very bad air quality numbers. So I am adjusting my itinerary, eliminating multiple nights from many small towns, which will free up time to reallocate elsewhere.

I will end this post with a photo I took from my bedroom window early this morning in Moose Jaw, SK. This was taken at 506 local time, about an hour before sunrise. The 3 bright spots in the photo are, the Moon (lower center), Venus (above it and to the right) and Saturn (further above and to the right). I darkened the photo a bit so it would look exactly like what I was seeing. The Moon appears as a thin crescent. It was really an amazing sight.