After a few days of working on the farm after we got here from NJ, the family decided that we should go on a mini road trip. I have been bugging my parents to go with me out to the Sand Castles and Sunken Hill at Beechy for a couple years so we decided to take an afternoon and drive out there.
The Sandcastles are located on the shore of the South Saskatchewan River about 20 minutes from Beechy and about an hour from Kyle. The weather has to be totally dry to make it out there and this year it definitely was.
It was still a bit smokey from the forest fires up north when we went, but still an amazing view of the coulees and the river. The actual Sandcastles have been formed over thousands of years of wind and rain erosion on the sandstone hills. What are left are one of a kind formations in the middle of the prairie. See not all of Saskatchewan is flat! You can also find fossils of oysters, mussels and many other prehistoric beings down in the valleys along the water.
On this cliff we came across a nest of red-tailed hawks. The mama was very angry at us from even half a kilometre away so we didn't dare get to close or get a talon in our head.
The Sunken Hill is a pretty cool story. In 1949 a husband and wife drove across this hill to check on cattle and three days later a man on horseback went to check on the cattle again and saw that the hill had collapsed. The car tracks from three days before looked like they had driven off the edge. The cause is not known but it could have been an underground natural gas pocket, an underground lake or quicksand could have been the cause. The area has become very grown in, even in the last 20 years and if you didn't know you probably wouldn't know it was ever a huge hill.
On our way back to the farm we decided to backroad through the Matador. This is the real wild west prairie. Really we only saw a lot of cows and grass but it was a fun drive.
I would love to go back and search for fossils and make a day of the trip. I know a lot of locals that have never been out here but it is totally worth it and would be awesome to do by boat, so check it out of you are in Saskatchewan!
Wow I had no idea that Saskatchewan could look like that! What a beautiful area. Perhaps I'll have to plan a road trip :) Interesting story about the Sunken Hill too!
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