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Wooded Bliss
In the Manitoba highlands, burnished prairie meets the boreal forest, and a day at the mineral spa is capped with a walk in the woods. Welcome to the new wilderness. Play Geocaching, offered by the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve, is our new favourite way to explore the outdoors. Think part Canadian history, part Amazing Race. For a surprise, follow the co-ordinates on a hand-held GPS locator, for rent from the park. Falling water reverberates in the doughnut-shaped Equinox Mineral Pool at Elkhorn Resort’s Solstice Spa. Its mineral waters, stoked with magnesium, sodium, sulphur and potassium, work wonders on muscles. After a soak, sip cucumber-flavoured water, slip into the steam room and finish with a blast from the Swiss shower. Former park naturalist Celes Davar, our ebullient guide at Earth Rhythms Learning Adventures, enforces an early morning wake-up call. Lingering doziness evaporates, however, like the mist that rises off the plains, revealing the silhouette of a towering moose. “Lie back and relax, and I’ll read you a story,” says massage therapist Debra Lynn Thorne of Keeway (Giiwe) Wellness Centre, who draws on her aboriginal heritage with music and folk tales. There was more to her story, but the guided meditation induced a profound nap. Snack Earth Rhythms transforms the picnic shelter at Whirlpool Lake into a candlelit, linen-clad wilderness bistro with food by Jason Kelley. Bison steaks are seared on wood-fired stoves, while dessert includes highbush cranberries and wild blueberries that taste like they were just plucked from the bush – and probably were. Regulars swear by the eclectic T.R. McKoy’s Italian Restaurant (open May to October), set in a colossal log drive-in theatre. Chef and co-owner (with wife Diane) Trevor Gowler’s menu is prairie comfort food, from grilled jerk chicken to build-your-own pizzas. Relax Our totally retro A-frame chalet at Elkhorn Resort comes with wood-burning fireplace and full kitchen, but the wilderness beckons. The only sounds are the birds as we sit on the deck at the edge of the forest. Was that a lazuli bunting or an orange-crowned warbler? Write to us: letters@enroutemag.net |
