I lived in North Battleford for the first two years of my life so it’s strange that we’ve never gone exploring in the Battlefords. We moved to a much smaller town after that. I’ve driven by the Battlefords many times on my way to Alberta, but I haven’t stopped there to explore. At the start of August, I was meeting up with a friend and thought it would be fun to explore the area. We made it a family event and my parents met up with us as well.
The Battlefords are about an hour and a half from Saskatoon and they make the perfect day trip. I also took note of a few other places I wanted to visit another day. It was a VERY hot day (as they have all been) so we made sure to visit places where we could try to cool off.
Photo by Erin McCrea
I asked a friend where we should visit and she suggested Finlayson Island. I was intrigued by the fact that it’s an Island and had walking trails. It was too hot to do a lot of walking, but we stopped for lunch and spent a bit of time admiring the view. Finlayson Island is located in the centre of the North Saskatchewan River. It is in between North Battleford and the Town of Battleford and is open year-round. We would like to return in the Fall so we can explore without the heat.
Photo by Erin McCrea
The river was exactly what my son loves. It had lots of sand and water we could have walked in. We arrived by driving through Battleford. It looked like a nice town that I would love to explore it more. There is a walking bridge that you can walk across as well that leads to North Battleford. We walked over some of it to check out the view.
My son has been practicing taking his own photos so we spent a lot of time on the bridge while he took photos. We finally had to get back to the car so we could get some air conditioning. It was a beautiful walk over the bridge. I could understand why he wanted to take so many photos.
As seen by my five-year-old son. Photo by my son.
Our next stop was to the Western Development Museum in North Battleford. It’s one I knew my son would love. We enjoy the one in Saskatoon and this one is outside and very interactive. We enjoyed everything inside (and the air conditioning) but had a lot of adventures on our walk outside.
Photo by Erin McCrea
As my son was discovering and loving the older vehicles inside somebody who worked there came over and asked him if he would be interested in a ride in a firetruck when we got outside. My son is over-the-top dramatic and fell to the floor yelling, “This is the BEST day ever!”
There was room in the back for our crew and my son rode in the front with the driver. He also got to run the siren so it truly was his best day ever. After our ride, the firetruck continued picking up others while we explored the streets of the WDM. There was so much to explore and I’m not sure if we saw it all, but we can definitely visit again. I love the Western Development Museums. We are always discovering and exploring new things. They had a “mine” inside and my son loved exploring it.
Our next stop was a little personal. I have seen photos of a park and paddling pool I played at when I was a toddler. I thought it would be nice if my son went to the same park. We found the house we lived in many years ago and then found the park. We drove by about four playgrounds in the area which is amazing. We love playgrounds. We found the place I used to play but it was an entirely new playground and the paddling pool was now a spray park. We were VERY happy to see the spray park.
We had a really great time exploring the Battlefords. I’m sad that summer is ending because it feels like we still have so much more to see. Our last stop of the day was to Dairy Queen for milkshakes and to the pet store for treats and a toy because we felt bad about leaving my pup home alone all day. We enjoyed our visit so much that when we drove by the next week on our way to go camping my son was upset that we weren’t staying.
Next time we go, we’ll make stops along the highway as well because we saw a lot of little towns with museums we were interested in. This time, we just wanted to get to our destination, but we do like stopping to stretch our legs and to explore new places.
On our way home, we made a quick stop at the Borden Bridge and stuck our feet in the water to cool off. It was a great ending to the day and we can’t wait for our next adventure.
