Green plateau
Amid the prairie.
SimonnePurchase — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ckearns673 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Georgialh — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Qwexcxewq — CC BY 4.0 · Matthias Süßen — CC BY-SA 4.0
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is a natural park straddling the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan and run jointly by the two provinces; its Saskatchewan section lies about 28 km in a straight line south of the town of Maple Creek, south-east of Medicine Hat. In 1989 it became Canada's first interprovincial park. The park has two protected areas: the 345-square-kilometre West Block, which straddles the provincial border around points such as the townsite of Elkwater and Fort Walsh, and the 58-square-kilometre Centre Block in Saskatchewan. The Cypress Hills plateau rises up to 200 m above the surrounding prairie, reaching 1,468 m at «Head of the Mountain» in Alberta, Canada's highest point between the Rockies and Labrador. The plateau looks like a green island in the prairie, with forests of lodgepole pine and aspen, rolling valleys and meadows, and lakes such as Reesor Lake and Elkwater Lake. From lookouts on the plateau the golden prairie stretches to the horizon, elk and moose live in the forests, and the night sky is very dark. An entry fee applies, and the park has campgrounds and walking trails. The weather on the plateau is cooler and wetter than on the prairie around it, so bring an extra layer.
Amid the prairie.
Calm reflections.
To the horizon.
Cypress Hills, on the Alberta–Saskatchewan border, Canada
Yes, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Cooler and wetter than the prairie.