Cypress Hills Centre Block – Saskatchewan – Out and About

Lookout Point

Lookout Point is on the way to Bald Butte and sits at an elevation of 1275 m so not quite as high as Bald Butte but close. This viewpoint looks to the north and on a clear day you can see the town of Maple Creek and maybe even The Great Sand Hills further to the north.

Picture this

On a clear day you can see forever

In a frame

Bald Butte

Bald Butte is the highest point in Centre Block of Cypress Hills at 1281 m (4203 feet). There is a parking lot and a trail head where you can walk the short distance up to Bald Butte and enjoy the vista. The view is to the west where you can see “The Gap”, the rolling hills between the Centre Block and the West Block of Cypress Hills.

Trail to Bald Butte

Along the trail to Bald Butte

View from Bald Butte

Wildflowers

Berries

Checking out the view

Wildflowers

A bit hazy but still a view

Beautiful rolling hills

Heading back down the butte

Butterfly

Loch Leven

Loch Leven is at the core of the Centre Block of Cypress Hills and where you can canoe, kayak, fish for rainbow trout, or make use of the swimming beach. This loch was created in the 1930’s by daming the creek and was named by Lord Tweedsmuir (Governor General of Canada in the 1930’s) because of the resemblance to his native home land of Scotland.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Gazebo along the lake

Beautiful flowers by the lake

View from gazebo

Beautiful Loch Leven

Boat rental facility

Rental boats

Boat rental

Canoes for rent

Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond is another beautiful lake near the entrance to the park. There are several group campgrounds in the area and also a few trails. A beautiful area.

Sitting area along Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond – moose country

Loch Lomond

Cypress Hills Resort

The Resort at Cypress Hills sits nestled in the Lodgepole Pines near the campgrounds and the core area. It offers hotel rooms, townhomes, cabins, restaurants, shows, spa, and lots of trails. There is also the Treeosix Adventure Park nearby for ziplining, wall climbing, axe throwing, rope courses, etc.

Entrance to The Resort at Cypress Hills

The main lodge

Bridge to rooms

Treeosix Adventure Park

Rainbow Campground

Rainbow Campground is one of the many campgrounds found at Cypress Hills Centre Block. It is heavily treed and the sites vary in length and width but many are too tight for big rigs. This campground is best left to tenters and small rigs but still a beautiful campground.

Entrance to Rainbow Campground

Road into the heavily treed campground

Lots of shade at a typical site

Warlodge Campground

Warlodge is another campground at Cypress Hills that is heavily treed and best for smaller vehicles.

A beautiful treed site

Another site

A tight site

Hiking trail in the campground

Maple Creek

Maple Creek is the closest town to Cypress Hills Centre Block and is about a 20 minute drive north from the park. The town has full services for fuel, grocery shopping, restaurants, bakeries, etc. It is a quaint town and even has a Grotto Garden with a Goat Walk and Goat Yoga to enjoy!

Welcome to Maple Creek

The historic Jasper Hotel along Jasper St

Beautiful wall murals

The entrance to Grotto Gardens

Flowers in the garden

The goat walk – we never got the goats up there. We paid – they laid.

It was a hot afternoon and the goats were not going to move

On to goat yoga

The goat yoga barn

Whose the ass here?

Ducks in the pond

Whispering Pines Hike

A nice Lodgepole Pine trail at Cypress Hills starts at the north end of Loch Leven and is a beautiful hike, even though my husband got stung by a hornet or wasp a few times! Yikes!