The Northeast Swale in Saskatoon

This past weekend, we checked out the Northeast Swale in Saskatoon. We needed to get outside. The weather was finally nice, nobody was sick in our house, and we had to get out of the house. I decided we should take a hike someplace new to us. We’ve never been to The Northeast Swale. It’s located in the northeastern area of Saskatoon. I googled the directions and while they are clear, we still got a little turned around with a road closure. Now that we’ve got it figured out, we know exactly where we are going.

Before I get into our experience, here is a little bit about The Northeast Swale. It offers high-quality biodiversity. The diverse environment offers a habitat for a variety of plants, birds, mammals, and more. It also provides flood control for the surrounding community. The City of Saskatoon and Meewasin are working together to conserve this area. As you walk the trails, you can see how much work they’ve done to teach us about the area.

They had information on all the rocks.

My sister met us there and came with her snowshoes. We quickly learned that was the way to do the trails. They would make wonderful walking trails in the Summer, Fall, and Spring. In the winter, we all needed some snowshoes. Only my sister had hers though. The snow was pretty deep and it took a while to walk through the snow. My sister made it through much easier. My son tried them as well and did very well!

Rule number one when hiking with my son. Always stop to make snow angels.

We still had fun. We didn’t walk the entire trail, but we walked to four different information areas. My son had fun falling in the snow and we had a good time discovering a new area.

My son tried the snowshoes. They were too big but good practice for when he gets his own pair.

I was able to wear snow pants and just my sweater which is shocking because we’ve had such cold weather. It’s harder to make snow angels in just a sweater, but definitely easier to go on long hikes with the family.

His aunt was very kind to let him wear her snowshoes.

He did give the snowshoes back eventually because his little feet kept tripping over them but he was very happy to have a turn. His aunt was very happy to have them back! I think this year is a snowshoe year. We are going to look into renting some for ourselves to help us on our deep snow adventures.

Walking back to the car.

In all honesty, even though the snow was deep and hard to walk in, it was the perfect hike. We chose a shorter distance because of the snow and my son did really well. We could have gone longer but we knew we’d have to walk back through it. It did get a bit chilly on the cheeks by the time we finished the hike but we’ve had so many days of freezing cold weather that we were all completely happy to finally get outside and find some fresh air. We passed people in snowshoes and others sitting on the benches to enjoy the area. We saw somebody trying to kitesurf on the ice. Excuse me while I google what it’s actually called on the ice. Kite-board maybe? We saw people out with their dogs – they weren’t walking in the area we were in (no dogs allowed) but they were walking them safely on the side. We loved the area and will be back to visit with snowshoes this season.