From Diversion Park, retrace your route north to Dawson Road #207 and turn right (east) towards La Coulée. In about 2.5 kilometers you reach the point where "the Forest Meets the Western Prairies."
The rural municipality of Ste. Anne prides itself on being the place where the West begins, where the forest of the rugged Canadian Shield evolves into the smooth western Prairies.
To this day, on the western edge of La Coulée, one can see the landscape change and imagine the wonder, and relief, the first travelers of the Dawson Road may have felt as they stumbled upon the great prairies of the West.
As you drive eastward from Sainte-Anne to La Coulée, take a moment to appreciate this natural phenomenon!
Approaching the demarcation line between flat Western Prairie and Canadian Shield Forest, pictured heading eastward on the Dawson Trail toward La Coulèe. The land rises as you continue east and pasture land becomes mixed with poplar trees and scrub brush.
Photos by Myriam Dyck
“1872, July 31st – Awakened at 8 a.m., by hearing a voice exclaiming, “thirty-two new species already; it’s a perfect floral garden.” Of course it was our Botanist, with his arms full of the treasures of the prairie. We looked out and beheld a sea of green sprinkled with yellow, red, lilac, and white. None of us had ever seen a prairie before, and, behold, the half had not been told us! As you cannot know what the Ocean is without seeing it, neither can you in imagination picture the prairie.”
Sir Sanford Fleming on his Expedition through Canada, 1872
Source: Grant, G.M. , 1835-1902. (1873). Ocean to ocean: Sandford Fleming’s expedition through Canada in 1872 (P.62). Being a diary kept during a journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the expedition of the engineer-in-chief of the Canadian Pacific and Intercolonial railways. BC Historical Books. Diaries. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcbooks/items/1.0221770
Purple Prairie Clover, Dalea purpurea. Its glowing colour and nectar make it a favorite for butterflies.
Image: Prairie Originals. Retrieved from: Native Prairie Plants - Wildflowers
Wild prairie flowers against a woodland background. Tall Grass Prairie Museum Winnipeg. Prairie preserve. Source: https://www.destinationsdetoursdreams.com/2018/07/tall-grass-prairie-preserve-at-living-prairie-museum-in-winnipeg-canada/
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