Recreation and Environment
In addition to the popularity of its lakes as summer recreational locales, the valley also contains popular venues for winter sports including the following:
- White Track ski resort on Buffalo Pound Lake
- Mission Ridge Winter Park, a popular skiing and snowboarding destination on the south shore of Mission Lake immediately adjacent to Fort Qu'Appelle
- Last Oak Golf Course to the north of Broadview, some 80 miles (130 km) east of Regina
- Hang gliding (and, less often, paragliding) from the valley slopes, especially in the Crooked Lake and Round Lake regions. In this area the valley is up to 450 feet (140 m) deep and a mile wide, allowing for strong, smooth airflow up the side of the valley and ample landing areas on top and down in the valley, and providing a strong upward component of wind as it flows over the (in some places) optimally rounded valley edge, allowing pilots to soar in the "ridge lift" for many hours at a time. Pilots commonly travel from Manitoba and Alberta and of course other locations in Saskatchewan to fly this natural wonder of the Prairies.
- The river valley contains relatively undisturbed grassland and coulees which provide habitat for native plant and animal species, such as the Loggerhead Shrike and the coyote (locally /ˈkaɪ.oʊt/). The easternmost slopes contain bur oaks, the only natural occurrence of oak trees in Saskatchewan.
Read more about this topic: Qu'Appelle River
Famous quotes containing the words recreation and/or environment:
“Media mystifications should not obfuscate a simple, perceivable fact; Black teenage girls do not create poverty by having babies. Quite the contrary, they have babies at such a young age precisely because they are poor—because they do not have the opportunity to acquire an education, because meaningful, well-paying jobs and creative forms of recreation are not accessible to them ... because safe, effective forms of contraception are not available to them.”
—Angela Davis (b. 1944)
“In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)