Exploring Manitoba's Most Popular National Park | Clear Lake, Wasagaming + Wildlife

This is a monumental moment. Lane, this is my semi-first time in Manitoba. Welcome. Thank you. I have not really ever been here before other than a quick trip to Winnipeg when I was a kid so this is all new to me. Where are we going Lane on this trip? We're going to Riding Mountain National Park. It is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. Beautiful, full of wildlife, all the bears, all the wolves, all the moose. But yeah guys, we are going to be in this lovely park for three full days. We are going to be staying in a lovely rustic cabin and we are going to take you along. Welcome to Manitoba. I was very excited to visit Riding Mountain National Park because it is just one of two national parks in Manitoba and is famous for its crystal clear lakes, extensive trail system, and abundant wildlife. The park officially opened in 1933 but for centuries beforehand it was home to many First Nations communities because of its excellent hunting and fishing conditions. Riding Mountain National Park has become the most famous cottage country destination in Manitoba considering it's only a three hour drive from Winnipeg and about an hour and a half from Brandon. So it's a very popular place where locals and tourists alike enjoy getting away from it all. Good morning from Wasagaming. I hope I'm saying that right. It's a Cree word right? Yes. For this area. But this is the main town site of Riding Mountain National Park. Lane, what is this area kind of for? Well this is like the town site for clear lake country and then you've got Onono which is only a couple kilometers away as well. Yeah. But I'd say this is the hub of the park. Yeah I think if you wanted to be where all the action is like have a nice little lodge hotel stay this would be a good place to look and of course we have lots of like restaurants, shops, there's information visitor centers in this area, so this is kind of the hub right where people start their journey in the national park and where we are about to get a very good breakfast because Lane knows a very special place. Best cinnamon buns in town. All right. So we are at one of the most famous breakfast places here in the town site. Lane, what are they most known for? Cinnamon buns. And what are you going to get for breakfast today? I'm gonna get the french toasted cinnamon bun. Oh my gosh. Thank you. You're welcome. And yeah they have taken it to another level because it's french toasted cinnamon bun where it's like cut in half, dipped in egg, grilled, sprinkled with icing sugar. You can handle that at 9am today? Okay. Here we are. My omelette has arrived and Lane's cinnamon bun, I don't even know this is like huge extravaganza of cinnamon bun and french toast has arrived. Please give us a taste test to let the people know if it's worth their while to stand in line as these people are to try these famous cinnamon buns. Oh my god. That actually looks amazing. Wow. Wow. That's great. Yeah? Out of 10? I recommend. Like 10 out of 10 good? Wow. All right. You guys heard it here first. Looks amazing. So this is basically our version of Southeast Asia. This is our white sand beaches. Not crystal clear turquoise waters but it's nice. Clear water? Yeah. So we haven't gone in the water to know how clear it is to be fair. But I have a feeling it's going to be cold. I have a feeling you should show the people how clear the lake is. Oh yeah I'll show them the lake but I'm not going in it. But like you need to go to be in the water. There's a bug on my boots. Hello Liza, how do you do? I'm writing you a letter. I hope it reaches you. I know it's been a long time that you heard from me. I'm still kicking around here in Tennessee. I heard you got a new place. I heard you got a new job. I heard you got a haircut and it looks real nice. Are you ever lonely? Do you ever think of me? I heard you got a new name. I hope it treats you right. I was promised buffalo in this park. No not you. I said the park. The park made a promise that there's bison here and they are here. They're pretty big animals and we are driving all around this like enclosure that they have where they're freely walking around. You're not allowed to get out of your car but we have not seen them. Where are they? They're so big they can't really hide in bushes. Can they? Where's the bison? As if no one knew what I was going through. I know you think I'm pretending and that I can't rewrite the ending, but to move on and on and on to someone new isn't how you find the one that I am through. Oh it went out. Oh no. Just two girls and coffee. Attempting. Yeah. Now while this may look absolutely idyllic now, we're sitting on a beautiful dock. Fabulous view. Lane brought this really cool thing so we can have a cup of coffee in nature. But uh what did we just go through Lane? Mosquitoes and wood. Yeah and we got up at like 4 a.m because we wanted a beautiful like sunrise hike. The smoke has taken over and the smoke and the mosquitoes have taken over. I didn't know that it would be this way but this moment right now is really nice. I'm grateful we actually have a really nice set up now but it was freaking rough going through the bushes and it's really made us question if we can do the other like long hikes that we had planned because if the bugs are that bad even with like really good bug spray. We would need full body netting. Yeah. Which we don't have. Which we don't have. And 30 degree weather would be comfortable. No. So we might also. Keep that in mind guys if you come here definitely bring everything you could possibly use for bugs or do like Lane did a few years ago and come in the fall right? Because there were no bugs. Yeah because I've been here in the fall twice and it it's beautiful. Yeah. I don't I don't remember anything about bugs so. Yeah. This is gonna be a fall and winter destination. It's a fall and winter destination but beautiful and grateful nonetheless. I find it to be a very peculiar thing that they named this national park riding mountain national park because I don't know about you guys but I don't really see any mountains around here. Lane and I actually googled this and for the prairies for the very flat prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan anyway yeah okay this has some valleys this has some hills I guess this national park is on like a rock escarpment and that is the mountain because as we were here I was like looking around thinking that oh like there must be some kind of mountain ridges somewhere but no there isn't. We're on it. Yes the highest point is probably Bald Hill which we unfortunately are not able to visit because the mosquitoes are thick if you go anywhere in the forest so sure there is some elevation gain when it comes to that but mostly it is lakes. Not that there's anything wrong with that the lakes here are truly stunning super clear water as the name of clear lake suggests and there are just so many beautiful lakes to choose from but if you guys are looking for mountains this is not the national park. black blue red yellow golden skyway it's like the day that you jump into the wind i can't go back down to these old muddy shoes keep on walking streets someone's egyptian cheese now if you guys are looking for a great suggestion of where to stay near the park it's not right in the park but here in the backcountry area lane found these fantastic cabins they are called crooked mountain cabins you can book them on airbnb i'll put a link in the description for anybody interested but it's got this beautiful nature area that you more or less have to yourself there are trails that go all the way through there and in this section there's just one two three cabins including ours and one over there so four cabins total in the area i think they do book up pretty far ahead of time i think we booked ours about two three months ago and they are really nice and technically pretty budget friendly per night lane how much did we pay a night like 250 or something canadian yeah yeah so for canada sadly that's actually a very good price it's like four or five hundred dollars within the park i think when i was looking in the bank yeah and that's like sometimes just like a hotel room right it's not even multiple rooms but sometimes hotels are on airbnb i don't recall specifically but it was at least double exactly you probably wouldn't you don't get that exactly so it's like first of all we have a barbecue which is a nice touch in our lovely fairly bug proof veranda this is a savior with the bug season going on but yeah beautiful nature nice seating area outside and then inside it is kind of like a smaller rustic cabin feel but plenty of space for either two people or a little bit more squished with two couples but you could still do it over this way is the kitchen you do get a stove microwave fridge sink and then here are the two bedrooms i was staying in the twin room this is lane's room and then is just a simple washroom so for the price for this area that gets pretty busy i think this is a great deal and that is it guys this was our lovely stay in riding mountain national park i think this is definitely a gem in canada and a great first experience pseudo first experience of manitoba for me i would love to explore the province more maybe i'll be able to um while i'm still in canada but for now i'm going to be heading back to saskatchewan hanging out with my dad and then i'll be back to calgary so i hope you guys enjoyed this video let me know your thoughts in the comments and i also want to say a very big thank you to my very good friend dean who is a watcher of this channel and who bought me such a kind gift of this camera that i am filming on because mine uh unfortunately died so this is the osmo pocket three creator combo for anybody wondering it is a fantastic camera and really the best one for travel i find because it's so light it's stabilized so thank you so much dean so i hope you guys enjoyed this video thank you so much for tuning in and as always keep being your own kind of beautiful bye guys hello liza how do you do i'm writing you a letter i hope it reaches you i know it's been a long time that you heard from me