Hoofing it through the Pembina Valley

My mom and I took advantage of a beautiful fall day last Sunday afternoon and went for a hike in the Pembina Valley Provincial Park, which is approximately 30 minutes east of my family farm travelling on a curvy gravel road running parallel to the North Dakota border (for a few miles the road is on the border). The Pembina Valley Provincial Park lies on the edge of the Pembina Valley and is 440 acres. We were ready for a workout and an adventure so we decided to take the longest trail called the Pembina Rim, which is the yellow trail on the map below. Hiking this trail took us approximately two hours, which included a few short breaks to enjoy the scenery and gulp down some water. But not too much water as I didn’t want to visit the outhouse pictured below. Needless to say, I have bad childhood memories of using the outhouses at the Snowflake ball diamonds. I had this fear that either I’d fall in the hole or something that was living in the hole would jump up and bite me in the butt! Honestly, I’d rather go in the bushes using leaves as toilet paper. But I digress.

 

Fall is the perfect time to visit the park as the trees are amazing shades of green, red, orange and yellow. The park also has a nice big area for picnics and games. The place was packed on Sunday as it was a great day to be outside. This makes me happy as I like seeing people of all ages outside enjoying nature and getting exercise rather than cooped up inside getting an overload of screen time. Visit this website for more information on the provincial park, along with a map to find it and a trails map: http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/popular_parks/central/pembina_info.html 

 

Here are some photos from our hike. Enjoy the beautiful fall weather!