Day 3 - Manitoba

Many hours of driving resulted in the much anticipated arrival in Manitoba! I was curious to see how different it was from Ontario and imagined some rolling prairies going on and on. So it was very anti-climactic to drive across the border and see, well, what I would describe a "southern Ontario". This is it?  This is not how the prairie provinces were described to me. Well, I thought, we just crossed the boarder so maybe you have to get further in to Manitoba before the scenery changes. Since we weren't driving to much farther through Manitoba that day at least I could look forward to seeing how different their Provincial Parks are...... 

Boy were they different from what I was used to!

The White Shell Provincial Park is located directly on the border of Ontario and Manitoba. It consists of not one campground but is broken up into about 10 different areas or campgrounds. The one we chose to stay at was called "White Hawk". We took the exit off the highway and drove down a paved road until we got to a T in the road where we stopped in confusion. We didn't know if we should go right or left. There was no signs saying which way to go and clearly we weren't there yet because we seemed to have entered a small town that kind of reminded me of the town of Powassan. We pulled off to the side of the road and looked around to find a clue.  Then we noticed a sign (the kind where you can add or remove letters to change what you want to say at any time) that said "White Shell Provincial Park Welcome...." 

So this is it? We are in the park? Really? ..... But wait! Isn't that a Chinese restaurant over there? Manitoba Provincial Parks have restaurants in them?? 

And wait!!  Isn't that a Liquor store over there? It's a nice looking pine log building, but yes it is indeed a liquor store. 

So we turned right and drove down the street a little until we saw the sign that let us know that we were in the West Hawk campground of White Shell Park.  Oddly enough the sign had a loon on it and not a hawk at all. This somehow did not really surprise me. 

The office was not too far off and a tiny little log cabin that doubled as a museum. It was only about 5 or 6 pm (Manitoba time...we had crossed a time zone and gained an hour today) and yet there were no staff to be seen. 

That was not to say that there weren't people around. There were plenty of people around. Some were playing tennis in the court beside the office, while others were strolling down the street heading for some ice cream at the ice cream shop. 

So with no employees around to register with, we followed directions on the posted signs which told us to choose from the listed sites, set up and pay for the site in the morning. 

It took a bit of time but we eventually settled on sites 25 and 26. The place looked like a trailer park. There were virtually no trees between yourself and the neighbours. It was as if everyone was camped out for a big open air concert or something. This just isn't my idea of camping. 

Once we got settled in we decided that since we were tired and hot and a bit cranky that why not treat ourselves to a nice shower and a meal at one of the restaurants. That was when we started to relax and enjoy the park more. 

For one thing, the showers were quite nice. The building they were housed in features a decorative glass-less window in the wall in the shape of a turtle. The water is heated by solar panels that cover the entirety of the roof. The water pressure was good and the water was hot. The building itself had artistic angles and shapes to it. The only downfall was that it was a pay-per-use shower (about $1 for 3 minutes). 

The bathrooms were super nice inside. They were spotless and the colours were rich and warm. There were auto flush toilets and motion sensor faucets. The bathroom definitely had some class. I have never seen such a nice bathroom in a campground before. 

After getting all cleaned up we headed for the Pine 44 Restaurant which was about two doors down from the Chinese restaurant. I ordered a Blueberry Tea and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually an alcoholic blueberry tea. Best tea ever! They add a shot of Grand Mariner and a shot of Dissarono and then you pour in your own tea. It was fabulous!

The service here was excellent! The food was fantastic! And we could sit and watch the deer walking around the campground through the windows. 













Our spirits picked up and when we were done with dinner we walked leisurely back to our site.  We noticed how nice the side walks were and how nice the street flags were. 

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Then we noticed a car drive by that seemed to be towing it's very own carry on luggage. I still don't know what that was all about but we had a good laugh over it. 

Hidden in behind the bathrooms was a cute little amphitheatre, 

As the sun was going down I decided to explore the park a little more. I took my dog for a walk down by the beach. The beach was quite lovely and had a mural of various types of fish all over it. 

I took the dog down by the docks where all the motor boats were tied up. It was pretty in the dusk and I could see two loons swimming around not too far off. 

Out to the side of the docks I could see an area in the water that was all sectioned off by some markers floating in the water that said " Keep Out". I wondered what these were for. 

It wasn't until I had walked the dog a little further and came to a strange looking tunnel like structure that I figured out what the markers were for. The strange building had a sign beside it that identified the area as a scuba diving emergency vehicle parking area. So that was what the markers were for... to keep boats from hitting the scuba divers! 

I headed back to the tent with the dog to settle in for the night. The next morning we were up bright and early and packing up to continue on our way. I did take a quick break to go part way up the scenic walk hiking trail before we left though. 

I am glad I took the time to check out this little trail. As you go up the hill you enter a tunnel of trees with stone steps leading up to the top of the hill. With the sun shining through the branches it looked like the entrance to a fairy land. 

At the top of the hill were a bunch of educational signs that you could read. Once upon a time these signs were quite nice, but now some of them have fallen into a state of dis-repair. Oh well, the view over looking the lake was still breath taking. 

As I turned to go back down the hill the way I came I could just make out our white RV between the trees on our camp site which looked so tiny down below. 

Once we were packed up and ready to hit the road again, we stopped by the office to pay for our stay here. As luck would have it they were having technical difficulties with their computer system and were not able to charge us for the night that we stayed. So we ended up not having to pay for camping here at all and instead, got a free night out of the deal. You can't beat that!