Buffalo Pound Provincial Park is a

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to the ...

located in southern

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, Canada, about north-east of downtown

Moose Jaw Moose Jaw is the fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javians ...

and north-west of the city of Regina. The park centres on

Buffalo Pound Lake Buffalo Pound Lake is a eutrophic prairie lake in Saskatchewan, Canada, formed from glaciation about 10,000 years ago, on the Qu'Appelle River approximately north of Moose Jaw and north-east of Tuxford. The lake gets its name from the metho ...

, a

prairie lake A prairie lake is a somewhat shallow lake that will empty naturally during dry seasons, allowing a variety of terrestrial plants to flourish upon the rich nutrients in the exposed lakebed, and the lakes eventually refill with water returning to t ...

formed from

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

about 10,000 years ago. Seasonal recreation activities include swimming (two public beaches and a pool), camping, fishing, mini-golf, biking, hiking, and access to the

Trans Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, Pacific to the A ...

. The park also features a captive herd of buffalo, along with the Nicolle Flats Marsh where a variety of wildlife can be observed. There is also a trout pond, known as Buffalo Pond, which is stocked with

rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

, and

tiger trout The tiger trout (''Salmo trutta'' × ''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a sterile, intergeneric hybrid of the brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') and the brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis''). Pronounced vermiculations in the fish's patterning gave rise ...

. Highways 202 and 301 intersect near the park.

Amenities and attractions

There are seven different camping areas in the park with a total of about 270 campsites. Many of the individual sites have electric, water, and sewer services. The seven campgrounds are Lake Side, Elm View, Valley, Maple Vale, Shady Lane, Trail Ends, Lower Chalet, and Rankins Campgrounds. Two

disc golf Disc golf, also known as frisbee golf, is a flying disc sport in which players throw a disc at a target; it is played using rules similar to golf. Most disc golf discs are made out of polypropylene plastic, otherwise known as polypropene, which ...

courses are in the park. One is a 9-hole course for beginners and the other is a professional 18-hole course. Completed in 2020, the park features a 4,000 square foot heated swimming pool called Buffalo Pound Provincial Park Pool. This pool replaced the original one, which was built in 1972. Opportunities are available for canoeing, kayaking, swimming, fishing, and boating at the beach areas along the lake. Also at the beach
Sask Aquatic Adventures
has a water adventure park set up. It is one of nine in Saskatchewan. The others are located at

Blackstrap Lake Blackstrap Lake is a man-made reservoir in central Saskatchewan, Canada, south of Saskatoon in the rural municipality of Dundurn No. 314. The lake was created as a reservoir in 1967, as part of the Saskatoon South East Water Supply System. B ...

the Battlefords The Battlefords is the collective name given to the adjacent communities of the City of North Battleford and the Town of Battleford in west-central Saskatchewan, Canada. As of the 2011 census, the two communities have a combined population of 18, ...

Regina Beach Regina Beach is a town in south central Saskatchewan, located on Highway 54, close to where Highway 11 (which connects Saskatoon to Regina) intersects with the Qu'Appelle Valley. As Regina Beach rests on shores of the south end of Last Mount ...

, Duck Mountain, Greenwater Lake, Tufts Bay on

Lake Diefenbaker Lake Diefenbaker is a reservoir and bifurcation lake in Southern Saskatchewan, Canada. It was formed by the construction of Gardiner Dam and the Qu'Appelle River Dam across the South Saskatchewan and Qu'Appelle Rivers respectively. Constructio ...

Elbow The elbow is the region between the arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and the media ...

, Sandy Bay at Candle Lake Provincial Park, and Greig Lake at

Meadow Lake Provincial Park Meadow Lake Provincial Park is a northern boreal forest provincial recreational park along the Waterhen and Cold Rivers in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The park was founded on 10 March 1959, is the largest provincial park in Sask ...

. There are over 30 kilometres of mountain biking trails of varying difficulty levels, multiple hiking and walking trails totalling over 16 kilometres, bison viewing areas, mini-golf, and picnicking sites.

Nicolle Flats Marsh

Nicolle Flats Marsh, with a total area of 73.18 square kilometres and an elevation of 511 metres, is a large marshy area located in the park at the south-east corner of Buffalo Pound Lake. The confluence of the Qu'Appelle and

Moose Jaw River Moose Jaw River is a river in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located in the southern part of the province in a region called the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, which extends throughout three Canadian provinces and fiv ...

s is in the marsh. The area is an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

of Canada (SK 060 Nicolle Flats) and is home to several species including Mallards, American white pelicans, black-crowned night-herons, Franklins gulls, willow flycatchers, yellow-breasted chats, great blue herons, and black terns. Several interpretive trails wind their way in and around the marsh and park area, including Nicolle Flats Trail (9.8), Valley Interpretive Trail (1.5), Dyke Trail (4.5 km), Bison View Interpretive Trail (3 km), and Marsh Boardwalk Trail (0.5). The Dyke Trail is part of the

Nicolle Homestead

The Nicolle Homestead (50°33'26"N, 105°17'52.4"W) was built by Charles Nicolle and his family in 1903. It is located at the easternmost part of the park. Charles Nicolle was a veteran of the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...

and settled in the Qu'Appelle Valley with his family and 1881. All that remains of the homestead is the

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

house that was built in 1903. The farm was named Mapleford and the Nicolle family lived and farmed there until 1959. The site can be reached along the Nicolle Flats Trail.

References

External links

Buffalo Pound Provincial Park
* {{Authority control Provincial parks of Saskatchewan Division No. 6, Saskatchewan Important Bird Areas of Saskatchewan

Amenities and attractions

Nicolle Flats Marsh

Nicolle Homestead

See also

References

External links