Perfect place to go paddle boarding! Free onsite parking, and some picnic tables found in the…read moresurrounding areas!

On a very very very hot day we made a last minute decision to head here instead of Dinosaur…read moreProvincial Park and thank goodness we did! I still long to explore Dinosaur, but with a hot, tired, crotchety kid we really needed some shade and a lake to swim and a moment to relax and Kinbrooke provided all of these in spades where I'm afraid our northern desert would have not. We snagged one of the last 4 spots via online booking and rolled in to a big, shady, breezy site just up from cottage road, next to a pit toilet that had fortunately just been cleaned. Lucked out on that one! COuld have been a very different experience! As it was we loved our site, we laid out blankets and watched the breeze in the trees and drank a beer and the kid rolled around, not too buggy to eat outside, just perfect. We took a nice walk to the lake along the cottage road which sort of felt like a mini kennebunkport with some super sweet old family cottages, kids on bikes, and of course because Alberta: huge trucks rolling around with skidoo's and giant inflatables. When in Rome I guess. Kinbrooke is Alberta's best beach according to some, and it is definitely super fun to swim in. I think I'd argue that some of the mountain glacier lakes are more spectacular, but definitely not as warm. There is a sailing club on a point jutting out past the provincial park beach, and after our swim and after dinner we went out for a stroll again and were treated to a completely thrilling sunset lightning storm.

Pretty cool park. Friendly staff. Museum at visitor center is really cool. Good programs. Well…read moremaintained campground. Beautiful scenery. Not a huge park so not a place to spend days at. Some of the field displays are in disrepair. This is a place worth checking out.

Ok, I'll say it. We were disappointed and glad we lucked out that it was freebie day. We had…read moreintended to stay for hours, but only stayed an hour-ish. If you've never seen Badlands, go and see this area, but we live near some Badlands and have traveled in areas where some are. All more colorful than here. At the 2 field houses, neither audio info box worked. There is mention of an Albertosaurus (sp?), but do you think there's a drawing of what one looks like? Nope. Inside the visitor center, they play 7 films on a loop, but NO one knows what films and in what order. If they are on a loop...you should know the order. Also, when there is a display of a bone, it would've been informative if there was a drawing of the dinosaur with the bone highlighted, so one can visualize the bone.

Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is an interprovincial park straddling the southern…read moreAlberta-Saskatchewan border, located southeast of Medicine Hat. The Cypress Hills rises up above the surrounding prairie, to a maximum elevation of 4,816 ft, making it Canada's highest point between the Canadian Rockies and the Labrador peninsula and also the highest point in Saskatchewan (!!!). The transition is somewhat sudden. One minute you're in prairie and the next mile you feel that you're in the mountains! I saw extensive forest, interesting grasslands and flowers, and breathtaking scenery. I'm told that most of the flora here is shared with the mountains in states such as Montana and Wyoming rather than with the rest of Canada. My friend Jim and I decided one day to drive out here after work (from Medicine Hat) and drive around. Jim had previously taken is Boy Scout troup out here for backpacking trips. I wanted to take a look at this beautifull park and also set food in Saskatchewan for the first time. So we drove around admiring the scenery and chatting about work issues and Canadian politics (I'm known in some circles as a closet Canadian). Our plan was to drive into the Saskatchewan section of the park and then back up to the Trans Canada Highway. But soon paved road turned to gravel, then to mud and before we knew it we were stuck in spring mud! We finally got ourselves out and turned around, but not before being caked (head to toe) with mud. Later at a local car wash, it took about 10 dollars worth of quarters to clean the mud from the wheel wells and other parts of the car. As a person who grew up in the Midwest, I should have known better! I would love to come back here and enjoy this jewell of a park again in a more deliberate fashion. I'd hike, I'd swim, and maybe I'd camp. I would also explore some of the history that was made here. For example, The Cypress Hills Massacre, a key event in Canadian History leading to the creation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) occurred in the Hills when a group of American wolvers from Montana massacred an Assiniboine encampment. Nearby Fort Walsh was established to bring law and order to the Canadian border region.

It's a nice, hilly, and forested area in the middle of the flat and desolate prairies. With…read moreElkwater Lake nearby and Fort Walsh for your history comforts, what's not to like about this place? You literally go from the flat, brown prairies to this hilly area with lots of trees and amazing scenery. Definitely a place to check out if you're in the area.