Canada Camping Road Trip to Whiteshell Provincial Park! (skip the crowds of the Icefields Parkway)

Welcome to Whiteshell Provincial Park. We're here in Manitoba and this is the first time we've actually been here at Whiteshell so we're pretty excited to see what it's all about. We got here last night in our RV and it's the first time we've been driving an RV. We made a video about how that works and how to book it through Canada Dream so if you want to check that out make sure you watch that as well. This is actually a really big provincial park. We've heard such great things. We're going to be actually staying in two different campgrounds here that are in different areas. Right now we're near Pinawa and just to keep things easy right away especially with that there's a drizzle in the air right now we're going to take the babies over to the Pinawa Dam. While we're beginning the hike now I have Sophia on my back. Say hi Sophia. Actually our first time using these Osprey backpacks that we got from MEC. They're pretty amazing but it's our first time using them so it just took some some time to adjust. Yeah now we're going to make our way to the dam. It should be about an hour walk return trip so hopefully that's right. We've been just walking for about 10 minutes and I must say that it's not very well signed. We cannot see a clear path but at least this is pretty. All right so here we are at number one the Pinawa Dam ruins tour. So it's kind of cool there's these signs that are going to be along the way that explain the different things that you're looking at and uh yeah from what I understand it goes from 1 to 13 I believe. Oh nice waterfalls over here. This is a pretty cool place. You know what this kind of reminds me of? Being in like the last of us. Pinawa Dam was Manitoba's first hydroelectric generating station. The dam was developed in response to the demand for residential and commercial power and was crucial to the rapid growth of Winnipeg in the pre-war years. It's kind of a cool place to be exploring on your own. I'm kind of appreciating now that there's no good signage. The station began delivering power in 1906 and was closed in 1951 to allow the full flow of the Winnipeg River to serve the Seven Sisters hydro station built downstream. So we're so happy we finally got these Osprey child carriers. Now we can bring our babies on hikes. It just makes it so much easier. At first it was like making my back sore but I think now that I'm used to it it's pretty good and what's kind of cool is you have a storage in the back. Yeah like it's actually pretty big like Matthew can fit a jacket and a few more snacks. There's another compartment here another compartment here so it's pretty pretty big and it looks comfortable on them. Then you have these little stirrups for their feet just like when you're riding a horse except I'm the horse this time. Well our next activity is paddling down the Winnipeg River. So we just came to Pinnawa Unplugged in Pinnawa obviously and we could have walked down there but we decided to drive just down here to get to the dock where we're going to grab the paddle boards. So she said to just come to the public dock and grab a paddle board. I don't think we've ever been on a non-inflatable one so we should see we'll see how this goes. I'm on and she mentioned to go to the left instead of the right because if you go to the right there can be a strong currents. So she said go to the left stick to your left because that's where the flow is better and we'll see what we find. And away we go! After only 10 minutes paddling we made it to the marina. Here you feel a little push or current like moving your paddle board sideways but it's not bad it's pretty good. I guess we're used to floating down the Bow River in Calgary where there's more moving water so this is nothing for us. Well we've been paddling for about an hour now we made it to the golf course and this really cool floating water park. Wish we could go in that. I know I bet it will be even nicer in a hot day. On a hot day yeah because the water is uh pretty nice obviously a little chilly but nothing like what we get in Alberta. But yeah no it's been an awesome it's this uh really beautiful slice of Canada and if we're ever back we'd love to do the float because something that's very famous to do here is a floating down the channel. It takes about three hours and you can see a lot of tubes so I think people do it on a hot day with big groups of people. But for us I think it's time to go back because we have about an hour obviously to get back to the car and then we can go have dinner with the babies. I don't know if you can see through the window but my little baby Emma's calling my name she wants me to come in and eat dinner already. But uh yeah this campsite's near Pinawa it's really close to the river float actually and it's called Relax Ridge Campground. Now this campground only has power it doesn't have sewer and water right at the campsite but at the front of the campground there is an area where you can empty your sewage and refill your water. Also before I forget behind the RV we have a picnic table and a fire pit as well so if you uh want to have a great place to do that too. Well I couldn't wait any longer to have a shower it's always a huge bonus when you can have a hot shower and extra washrooms when you're camping that's really a luxury. And if you're wondering why I'm showering here and not in our RV is because as Matthew mentioned since we don't we're not hooked to the water or the sewer it just makes it easier because surprisingly with only washing the dishes from last night and today morning and being very careful about it that tank is filling up so we just want to make sure that we have enough for washing the dishes for tonight's supper as well as tomorrow morning so it's just like a tip that we've been given and I think that's the reason why. How is the jambalaya? Very good always tastes better when you're camping. Well today we're heading to a different part of White Shell Provincial Park but before we leave we wanted to take a short walk over to the Pinawas suspension bridge because it's only about an eight minute walk from where we're staying. Well we took the trail to the right and it brings you down below the bridge so you get like a nice view of the bridge but now let's get back up to go across the bridge. I'm not quite sure how this works if it's just one at a time so that's what we're gonna do. Wow! No? Okay let's go back. Go through this gap. It's because it's moving more so Emma got nervous. Let's see what Sophia does. Sophia! Now it's Sophia's turn to go on the suspension bridge and this is her first time on one of them. I asked Sophia you want to go on the bridge, she said yeah. Oh really? Yeah. This girl is pretty bold. She gets less scared than Emma. You made it Sophia! Oh my god we just came back from the trail and a guy was saying hurry up. I said like what's going on? There's bears on the trees. There's like a mama bear and two cubs. Oh my god. I've never, I've seen a lot of black bears but never in the trees but you said the mama bears. Look it's there. It's looking at us. She can come down any any moment right because she's protecting her baby. My mom gets so scared. She was like just a little like rush and said you don't run ever. Because you guys don't have bears in Mexico City? No. When it's coming down or it's just a tree. Well we're getting back on the water once again but this time we're going canoeing on Caddy Lake. We just rented a canoe from Caddy Lake Resort and we're going to head out towards the tunnel. So there's these really cool rock tunnels that connect it to other lakes. There's actually a bunch of them but we're just going to do the first one because that one takes about an hour and a half to two hour return. Welcome to Caddy Lake. I'm going to be your guide today. You sound Australian. I might. They're usually Australian actually. I don't know about here. In Banff for sure. Yeah. Is it one of those flies? Okay let's keep going. Are you gonna try to kill it? No no no. You kill it? Yeah. As you can see we get quite nervous. Well we've been canoeing for about uh half an hour but we've been chilling like you know like just looking around having some sweets and we're just passing by the island that the what you mean like the tour guide mentioned. He said to stick to the left and then eventually around the corner we're gonna see a cabin and that's where you see the entrance of the tunnel. So this is the cabin that they mentioned to look for. It looks almost like a dead end. Because he said eventually it turns into a little bit more like kind of like a river. It gets very narrow. Such an adventure. They also mentioned because it gets too narrow you should whistle as you're coming in and out but we don't whistle very loud so I'm just gonna shout. We're gonna try it. Okay go. I know Matthew. I also know how to do that but it's so low. We're coming. We're coming in. No no one is coming. So cool. Okay ready? Are you ready Matthew? Because I know you're afraid of the darts. I love the bats. For some reason the bats just make it so much more exotic. Oh this is so cool. I love seeing the bats. I don't know why. And just like that we're now in South Cross Lake. That's where the first rock tunnel takes you and then if you want to continue from what I heard it's about a couple more hours to the second tunnel and then if you want to do the full circuit, the full canoe adventure, it's 160 kilometers. So for me and Carla I think that would take about a year but if you're a serious paddler probably a few weeks. I'm not sure but sounds like quite the adventure. So we actually got a van rental as well just to move around a little bit easier because we have such a big RV that it's better just to leave it in the park where we're camping overnight and just take the van for whatever adventures we're doing during the day. We also feel a little bit more comfortable that the babies are here in the van as it's safer than in the RV itself. Joel always needs my help packing up because he's not sure. After quickly checking in at West Hawk Lake Campground and getting our RV ready for the night we're going to indulge tonight and enjoy dinner here at High Point Restaurant and Lounge. How are the first bites? Pretty good. I got a spicy burger which said that it was a popular option and it's a little bit spicy but it's pretty good. And I got the ribs because it said they're really popular as they're marinated I believe for 24 hours in soy, ginger, and sesame. I guess you got pretty hungry after especially the beer for sure hit the spot. And this is the first time that the babies got their own pepperoni pizza. Are you liking it Sophia? Yummy yummy. Emma are you liking your pepperoni pizza? Well we just got back to the campground. We barely had time to to look around yet but it definitely looks like a very family-friendly place. There's lots of people here and Carla mentioned it almost feels like a bit of a resort. Yeah yeah there's like you know like kind of a resort-y town right the way it's laid out and everything. Yeah and even at the beginning of the campground there's like tennis courts or pickleball or whatever. Yeah so we're just gonna go for a small walk but especially to go and check out the showers and bathrooms. So we found a shower which is a big building located by the registration office. They are all single showers and they look like this. So pretty spacious. What you're gonna pay is the excess loonies and tunic. There's a lot of space to put your towels. There's a bench. So again this is just a bonus of course. It's nice that they have them. Well as we continue just walking around exploring the lake there's a number of different places to actually access the lake. I think one's closer to our campground but we managed to find the lake over here and something that's really cool about this lake. So it's called Westhawk Lake. It's very popular for its beaches and its crystal clear waters but it's also the deepest lake in Manitoba at 115 meters and it was created by a meteorite crashing into the earth. And something else that's kind of cool here it's actually a popular place for scuba diving. Something we just realized is I think this might be the baby's first sunset because usually they're in bed by seven. Well it's another blue sky sunny day and today we're changing things up and going on a horseback riding tour at Falcon Beach Ranch and this is a special tour where we're going to be visiting an infamous UFO landing site. All right we're ready to go. My horse's name is Angel. She's a female. And what's your horse's name Matthew? Roman. And our guide of today is Devon. Riding rusty. So my first question is have you seen an UFO? I've never seen a UFO. How about you? No never. As much as we like the sun it's always nice to be in the shade. How are you feeling Matthew with your allergy? Pretty good I can like I can notice it just a little bit in the throat but it's pretty good. When riding a horse and if you get nervous about like you know because it's uphill or downhill or pretty rocky someone told me your horse has four legs so just let him do what he needs to do because he's better than you. Gonna start in this spot here. So this guy that had this encounter his name was Stefan Mahalik and it was in the late 60s 1967 and it was in the springtime May long weekend. Like this is a little map he drew for the police and this is kind of his sketch and pictures of him and they're more feet high so it was really big it would have kind of filled the whole end of the rock here this vent sort of rotated past him it blasted out this hot like something like gas or exhaust or something that hit him in the chest. He was able to eventually lead the RCMP and Air Force investigators back here they found like a round ring where all the moss and dirt was scorched and blown away from the rock. They found elevated levels of radiation in that. He was interviewed by all these different investigators and even interviewed all these agencies the police and air force and stuff just have this officially listed as unexplained no one knows. Well the evidence was clear I really believe it was inexplicable it was very hard to believe that he did that kind of pattern on his body that he will get sick and everything after days of his encounter so I think that maybe it was a UFO and what about you Matthew? Matthew's more skeptic about these things. I'm not usually one to believe in this kind of thing as I was just saying especially these days since everyone has a camera but just like seeing things like having uranium and radioactive stuff is pretty interesting like I don't know maybe something did happen or like they said maybe it was something to do with a military but then like our guide said why would they land near a popular tourist town on a long weekend strange. And it was in 1967 and the technology wasn't there to like you know land and then like lift like that yeah see it was it was Russia for sure it's always Russia. Oh look they have some parties too that Emma Sofia could have ridden. Well before heading back to the RV we're at a popular place called the Nest Cafe here in Falcon Lake just going to grab some wraps and bring them back so we can all have lunch before our next adventure. I got a buffalo wrap and it's very tasty and look how big it is yummy. And I got the sweet chili wrap also very good I didn't realize they had cut it in the middle so it's getting quite messy but is what it is. Well it's a good thing we had that wrap. Yeah now we're all fueled up for the next activity which is one of the most popular hikes in the area called Top of the World. So to get here you just come to the Falcon Ridge ski slopes we're basically where number five is so you kind of start on the high lake trail first and work your way to here and that's when you begin Top of the World. And it's supposed to give us some amazing views of the lake. Well we're starting with a very easy slope but also we're not very worried about it because here there's not such high mountains like the ones we have back in Alberta and they say that it's a pretty easy hike and with great views so that's exciting. But one thing that is kind of making me worried right now is that there's not many people on the trail just because it's a weekday. There can be bikes because we saw there is like a bike trail system as well. Yeah there's lots of mountain biking here. And I mean they've told us and we saw a black bear before so our tour guide from the horseback riding said that it's very often to encounter black bears around this area at this time of the year because they they're looking for food right? Yeah all the berries have dried up so they want human food. Like shut up. Hopefully not human but has food. So yeah we're the only ones on the trail so you just need to keep singing So I guess this is where our hike officially starts. Well it doesn't feel like we've gone uphill that much yet. No. A little bit but we can already start seeing the lake. Short cut, snow cliff, top of the snow cliff. What would what do you want to do? I guess the cliff maybe gives you more viewpoints no? Might as well let's do it. Okay. See we're not lazy. We were debating bringing the babies but one, one of them was still sleeping. Two, it definitely adds to the time and uh we wanted sure if it was gonna be too hot. Yeah we weren't sure if it was gonna be too hot. We had no idea about the hike and also we want to make sure that they have the energy to explore the campground later so we can bring them down to the water again. Did we make it already I think? Because this could be just a cliffside no? I don't see a higher point. Well I think we made it to the top of the world. There's a nice bench here that's in loving memory of summer Ember Baranowski and it offers a great place to sit down and admire Falcon Lake. All right well we're gonna start heading back now but we thought we'd let you know that it took us exactly 30 minutes from the car to get to the top of the world so it's probably going to take us 30 minutes to get back as well. This is supposed to be a loop trail so so far we haven't seen any like clear signs that we're on our way back but there's an arrow here so that's a good sign. As I mentioned at the beginning this is also popular with mountain bikers and we found one of the turns. I don't have a bike so I'm going to try running it. Ready? Ready. And I'm not gonna try because I cannot afford to break something so yeah I'm good. It says shortcut no cliff. So you know what change of plans we're actually gonna be a little bit lazier and take the shortcut so we can get back sooner. A lot of falling trees this way there's something to be mindful. So we changed campsites for the last night just because the last one even though it was super nice I think a little bit more spacious didn't have the sewer. Yeah it just didn't have sewer hookups so we had power and water this one has it all it's literally like a couple minutes walk from where we were but it makes a difference. Yeah even though we tried to be cautious about the water we always fill up the tank so fast and now as we mentioned we're gonna go on a adventure let's see how far we can make it with the babies but we were told that there's we can walk around the lake and get nice views. We're trying to find the dragon fire trail. So we actually found this map by the main bathrooms and it seems that the trail starts right there. So the first sign you'll see which is right behind the bathrooms talks about craters in general because that's how this lake was formed. They say the diameter of this crater is 2.4 kilometers which is usually about 10 times the size of the meteorite itself. We're going very slow. Well I have a feeling this wasn't the right trail but there's never any signs but uh either way we got treated to a beautiful view of West Hawk Lake. And it's pretty amazing to see the size of it thinking that this is a crater. Well that's it for our time here in Whiteshell Provincial Park. We hope we inspired you to visit because it really is a beautiful place. Yeah I wish we could spend more time here. It seems a very family-friendly spot. I also wish that we were able to spend more time at the beach because the water like seems like so good. Yeah we were only here for uh four nights split between two areas so definitely not enough time but we need to get going because now we're on our way to Winnipeg. So if you like this video definitely give us a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button and if you want to learn more about the best of Canada check out our website at mustdocanada.com and don't forget if you want to learn more about the best things to do in Winnipeg check out our next video as well. Yeah? What? No I know but like you see Tyrone. I can't record because there's a horse fly around hi Sophia is really liking her potato fries well they're not hers actually they're mommy's and nana's