3 days ago
This national park in Canada is a stargazer's dream, with pristine dark skies and a chance to see northern lights
Only in Canada is a new travel series that acts as a love letter to the bucket-list destinations and experiences in our beautiful country. Look for the Only in Canada series every week.
The sun casts a pink glow, melting into the prairie panorama of rolling green hills and endless plains. It's quiet here — oh so quiet, except for the rustling sagebrush bending to the wind's whim, and the coyotes yipping in the distance.
Soon, a few twinkling stars emerge in the darkness, then thousands of them and eventually millions. They're so bright, they illuminate the seemingly infinite night sky. Peering up in awe, you can't help but feel both trivial yet inextricably, peacefully connected to the universe.
This is
Grasslands National Park
, in southwest Saskatchewan near the Montana border. A remote, wide-open landscape spanning 730 square kilometres, this was designated a Dark-Sky Preserve by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 2009. And it's considered 'the darkest Dark-Sky Preserve in Canada,' according to the Canadian Space Agency. There's nearly zero light pollution. In technical terms, it measures 1 (the lowest possible score) on the Bortle scale of night brightness.
Visitors to Grasslands National Park may see constellations, meteor showers, the aurora borealis and more.
Grasslands keeps its skies so dark by restricting light use, and ensuring any necessary lights cast reddish hues in a downward direction — all efforts to avoid disrupting the nocturnal wildlife here, including owls, bats and swift foxes.
'The feeling of vastness and connection to the sky — it's comforting, like being wrapped in a blanket of sky, with the wind at your ankles,' describes stargazing enthusiast Nicholas Ypelaar, an interpretation co-ordinator at the national park. He's a recent Ontario transplant drawn by Grasslands' night skies and birds. 'You never know what you might see, but you always see something exciting.'
Within Canada, Grasslands is the largest intact swath of endangered mixed-grass ecosystem — the country's most threatened and least protected ecosystem. The park's rich biodiversity includes more than 30 at-risk species of flora and fauna, all of which depend on this rare environment.
Grasslands National Park's diverse wildlife includes approximately 400 to 500 bison, a keystone species here.
Bison graze the blue grama grasses. Prairie rattlesnakes and northern scorpions, greater short-horned lizards and swift foxes call this place home. More likely, though, you'll spot bounding pronghorn antelopes or scurrying badgers, or be entertained by the greater sage grouse's elaborate courting rituals. This is also the only place in Canada where black-tailed prairie dogs, that charismatic, chatty species, exist.
Beyond the pristine skies and rare wildlife, history also sets this park apart: 'The darkness is important,' says Ypelaar, 'but only here do you have a full, unobstructed, 360-degree view where you can follow in the footsteps of humans who have been here for millennia, once guided by the night sky.'
Grasslands has remained largely unchanged since its first inhabitants, the A'aninin, followed migrating bison to the park more than 10,000 years ago. Later, other Indigenous communities, including the Nakoda, Nehiyawak, Niisitapi, Lakota and Dakota, would follow, making this their seasonal ancestral home. The park's rich Indigenous history is still evident today, through thousands of undisturbed pre-contact sites, artifacts and over 20,000 tipi rings.
By day, travellers can explore the park's dramatically different landscapes, including the prairie grasslands of the West Block, and the rugged hoodoos and badlands of the East Block. By evening, elevated areas like 70-Mile Butte or the Eastend trail offer especially beautiful views as sunset turns to nightfall.
A view from the Valley of 1000 Devils Trail. Grasslands National Park is vast and varied in its landscapes.
'On a clear night, the Milky Way stretches from one horizon to the other, becoming part of the landscape,' says Ypelaar. Gaze longer and you may see constellations, meteor showers, the aurora borealis. You might even glimpse colourful airglow — static bands of streaking light — which is rare to observe with the naked eye. Spring and fall are peak times for swirling aurora at the Two Trees and Belza day use areas, with summertime ideal to spot the Milky Way's central arch.
Bring binoculars or a modest telescope to look for further celestial marvels, such as star clusters, nebulae and galaxies, including Andromeda. What really excites amateur and professional astronomers is the chance to observe deep-sky objects listed in the Messier Catalogue, a sort of bible for stargazers.
'Stargazing is a beginner-friendly hobby. You don't have to be an astronomer to enjoy these sights,' declares Ypelaar, who suggests picking up a star map at the park's visitor centre as a starting point. 'It's an iconic experience in the province.'
Jenn Smith Nelson is a Saskatchewan-based travel writer who considers Grasslands National Park her favourite place in the province.
