Day 14 - Moose Mountain Provincial Park, Saskatchewan

Oh Saskatchewan, we need to talk.... You did so well with Cypress Hills. But everything else is an utter failure. I am so disappointed in you. From entering restaurants and being told to seat ourselves at dirty tables, to having little to no service as you glue your faces to the Rough Riders game on TV and ignoring your customers. Everywhere we went was complete rudeness (except Cypress Hills) and this place was no different. 

It began at the gate. My parents were in the RV in front of us and got all the information from the attendant. I like to get a map and brochure from each Provincial Park I go to so that I can post them on this blog. So we rolled up next in line at the gate and asked for a map. The girl declined to give us a map and instead said (referring to my parents who were already driving away) "They already know everything you need to know, just follow them" Really?!?  Now how do you know what we need to know and what we don't.  Sure enough, we did NOT have all the information we needed. My parents were now far enough ahead of us that we couldn't see them anymore and we did not have enough cell signal to contact them by phone. So here we were driving around trying to figure out where to find them.  We figured that they would be at the visitor center waiting for us so when we saw the sign for it we pulled in there. 

They weren't there and the visitor center was closed. So I still didn't get my map or brochure. We did see an interesting posting about there being an Artist Colony on site though. I would have liked to have checked that out, but after this visit, I don't think I would come back just for that. 

Afraid we would lose my parents all together since we had no clue where to go now,  we jumped in the car again and started driving around hoping to bump into them somewhere. Luckily they had pulled over and waited along side of the road so we were able to catch up to them. 
  The first thing we noticed as we got closer to our site was just how crowded the campsites were. It wasn't that the place was packed, it was that the sites were so small that you couldn't even fit your vehicles on them and everyone was parked on the side of the road. That meant that the roads were narrower to drive down than they should have been and you had to be extra careful not to hit something or someone. 

We found our site, M50, and started setting up. However, the rudeness here continued. We were surrounded by at least 5 campsites and each one of them had their radios on playing the Rough Riders game. We are talking, full blast so that the entire park could hear it. It's bad enough when one camper is rude enough to do that, but when you get it surround sound from every other site it becomes aggravating.  Especially since our entire family doesn't even like sports.  It wasn't long before we were all grumbly and cursing at the other campers under our breath. If you want to listen to your sports then that's fine. At least have the common courtesy to put some ear phones on or keep it way way down to a whisper. Or better yet. stay home and watch the game and let those of us who want to camp be left to the peace and quiet that is supposed to be what camping is about. What is worse is that the park rangers never once told anyone to turn the radios down like they should have. 

While the adult campers sat around listening to their radios blaring, their kids were left unattended screaming at the top of their lungs (maybe they wouldn't have to be so loud if they didn't have to compete with the radios) and having water balloon fights. There were pieces of broken balloons everywhere that never got cleaned up after they were done, despite there being a giant garbage bin for them to put them in right outside the bathroom.  You couldn't miss it. It was big and red. 

They were filling up the balloons  at the near by bathroom, which was a rather unpleasant little building. The lights didn't work right and the doors didn't shut right. The doors were constantly left open by both the kids and adults alike, despite the sign on the door asking them to close it behind them. 

The bathroom itself was dirty and had signs written in marker on the door, a chipped mirror, and a counter that had seen much better days.

The floor looked like it had been through a flood and hadn't seen as much as a coat of paint let alone repair in over 50 years. It was dirty and ugly looking. I know bathrooms, especially ones in camp grounds, are not meant to be beautiful and win any awards, but I have seen many in my time and this one was one of the worst. 

Even the comfort station at the end of the road was dirty with toilet paper and stuff all over the floor. 

Even our campsite had garbage all over it. There was old papers and wrappers, some used sparklers, old dog doo doo, and partially eaten cobs of corn. These campers obviously have no respect for the environment, nor for other people. 

The corn could have attracted  large, pesky unwanted animals.  Luckily the only animal that came around to chow down on the corn was a little grey squirrel. Sadly it was way too noisy here to see much of anything else in the way of wildlife. 

Eventually the Rough Riders game ended. I was happy that the Rough Riders lost....serves the rude Saskatchewan people right.  We all thought "Yay! Now the radios will go off and maybe we can enjoy the rest of the evening". That was not to be. As soon as the game was over, next came the country music blaring away. This was even worse because not only are we not country music fans but each camper had a different station on and were playing different country songs. This made for a mish mash of horrible noise pollution. 
   I was hoping that by walking up the road it would be quiter further down. No dice though. It was every where. I also noticed something else that was every where..... Christmas lights. 

I've seen Christmas lights on one or two campsites before in other provinces, but this place was like one big Christmas light festival. Everyone had them. If I wasn't so angry and annoyed with these people I may have even thought them to be pretty. But at this point, the whole place was just like one big trailer trash block party that we couldn't escape. You couldn't even escape it by going to bed. The music kept us up most of the night and the next morning we were tired and cranky and happy to be leaving. 

The only respite we got was waking up earlier than the rest of the campground. We were still running on Ontario time so 6:30 am to them was about 8:30 am to us. And boy were we not quiet about getting up and packing up. We didn't whisper and we didn't tip toe around, that's for sure. 
    The quietness of the morning was the first time we could see the potential for what this park could have been. We could finally hear the birds in the trees. 

There was nothing much  to see in the way of animals, but there was some pretty plant life. 

There were nice little paved paths between some of the campsites and as I walked the dog down some of them I just soaked up the songs of the birds and enjoyed a brief moment of peacefulness. 

I even managed to snap a picture of a Red-Veined Darter dragonfly. 
    The moment was short lived though. By the time I got back to our site, the other campers in the park were starting to stir. And what was the first thing they did on this beautiful quiet morning?...... Turn on their radio. 

Time to go!  
But not before I got the chance to take a photo of another dragonfly. This time a female Red-Veined Darter  dragonfly (which are actually yellow in colour). 

Saskatchewan, as much as I am offended and annoyed by you, I am also sad for you. You are missing out on so much in this beautiful world, all for a stupid Rough Riders game. There's more to life. I really hope one day you all figure that out. 

Happy to leave this park and never to return, we set off on the road again to a much nicer destination.... Aaron Provincial Park in Ontario.