Tuesday 9-27 Spruce Woods Provincial Park

Overcast Day

We spent three nights at Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. We had a magnificent time hiking and walking around Wasagaming but it's time to move on. Our next adventure was Spruce Woods Provincial Park in Manitoba, which is about 110 miles away.

It was a little chilly, in the 30's so we took our time getting ready to leave, we left around 9:00. The drive was mainly two lane highways through rolling hills and farm fields. When we got to Brandon we stopped and filled the Minnie up with gas, there was a Tim Horton's donuts right next door so I walked over and got a couple of donuts. Next we found the Walmart and did a little grocery shopping, we weren't able to get everything we wanted considering they didn't have the items. Some items they simply don't have here in Canada. Afterwards I walked over to the Dollarama to check it out but left empty handed. I wasn't impressed by the store, it reminded me of a Michael's arts and craft store more than a dollar store. I will stick with Dollar Tree considering everything is $1.00. When I got back we had lunch.

After lunch we were back on the road. We drove on highway 5 to get to the park, it was the worse road we have driven on. In places it was so rough Larry couldn’t drive any faster than 15 mph. We had to drive many miles on it. At one point Larry was thinking about turning around and skipping Spruce Woods Park but he decided to continue on.

We arrived at Spruce Woods Provincial Park around 2:00 and drove around to find a site. We had no problem finding one. Once we found one with power we drove to the office and paid for a night. In Manitoba you have to get a day pass to use their parks and the day starts at midnight so we had to buy two day passes at $5 each and then pay for a night of camping. When we stayed at the parks in Alberta and Saskatchewan there was not a separate charge for day use, it was included in the camping. The lady in the office said we could buy a year pass for $40 or a three day pass for $12. They also charge for showers while the other provinces were free. We originally planned to stay in the park for three nights because there were hiking trails but it had rained and it was muddy so we decided to stay only one night. 

After resting for an hour we went on a walk around the campground to the day area. The day area was very nice with a beach, a dog beach, picnic area, educational area with a tepee and an area that looked like a fort for a vendor to sell food. It had a miniature golf course. We took a bridge over the river to get to the beach area. We thought it was so cool that there was a dog beach. By the time we got back to the site we had walked for an hour and a couple of miles. The walk was an easy walk.

The Dog Beach

Larry standing on the bridge to the beach and picnic area

The tepee we saw 

After resting Larry browned up some hamburger and put in some taco seasoning for our dinner. When we were finished with dinner I walked around the camping loops for 45 minutes to get my steps in. We had a long day but it ended up being real good. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!