Traditional Camping under the Prairie Sky
Have you ever slept in a teepee?
Last September I drove through Grasslands National Park, in southern Saskatchewan, one of many stops along my epic cross-Canada roadtrip, where I visited a National Park in each province. As the name suggests, Grasslands is wide open, with rolling hills, few trees, large expanses of prairie and a big, open and unpolluted sky. It's a beautiful location to stay the night and watch the stars, but if you want to take your camping experience up a notch, consider renting a teepee.
I've spent nights in a teepee before, and loved it: they're more spacious than a tent (lots of headroom!), but still rustic enough that you feel connected to the outdoors. Because the ones in Grasslands were vacant on this particular night (late in the season), I was able to spend some time lighting the canvas from inside with a flashlight and photographing these traditional shelters under the moon and stars.
My version of shadow puppets. Posing for this is not as easy as it looks.
A little northern magic
As if the starry, starry sky itself wasn't sufficient, I was thrilled later that evening when the Northern Lights splashed some color onto the firmament, the first of many Aurora displays photographed on this trip, and a good opportunity to make one of my trademark "staring pensively into the distance while standing awkwardly" selfies.
Seeing these photos, are you more or less likely to camp in a teepee?
Or would you rather spend that night outside of a teepee with a camera and a flashlight, or just lie on your back in the grass and stare at the stars, or stay at home and look at pictures of the night sky on your computer? Let me know what you think!
the first one is like from a fairy tail. i am sure that the shadow one was no easy. is that just a strobe of light or did you lighten it for few seconds?
It was a flashlight, but I don't think the exposure was very long. :) The problem was that the flashlight was on the ground, so the angle distorted my figure like a warped mirror, and I had to lean into it to compensate, lol.
Amazing shots, specially the 2nd and 3rd ones!
At first thought the Green horizon as a bad photo edit :P
(never seen Northern light with my own eyes).
Looking at your dress in the last pic, looks like little chilly.
I would spend the golden hour taking photos with a tripod.
After that enjoying the canopy of starts, while sitting on the grass and sipping some scotch. :)
Canada is amazing, a dream vacation destination.
Hahaha, a bad edit, that's funny. I know what you mean. :D
Yeah, it was on the cold side, for sure! I may have even taken off a jacket for that picture, I don't remember.
I like your idea. I'd enjoy that too. Have you been to Canada?
Nopes, but Iwish to visit whenever I get the chance. (Visa, time and all...)
Nopes, but I wish to visit whenever I get the chance. (Visa, time and all...)
I hope you can!! :)
Seeing those photos, a night spent in a teepee under that stars looks like a fantastic thing to do!
Makes me want to as well! :)
These photos are brilliant... you're so clever! The last photo really gives a great perspective as to how big the teepees are. That's amazing standing room!
I've not considered a teepee before, I don't know if I've ever seen them here to be honest but we have bell tents which are becoming increasingly popular, especially with more organic natured souls. I would quite happily stay in those in the warmer months of the year! ; ) Glamping is becoming more popular too with permanent elevated tent sites available for holidaying, that would be fun and no set up required! :D
I desperately want to move out of the city into the country and I joke around saying I'll end up in a yurt. Again, I could easily live like that through the summer months but not through winter, it would be too cold for my liking!
Thank you!!! Yeah, they were comfortably big. Teepees are scalable, the basic shape works for all different sizes.
I haven't heard the term "bell tent" before, but I've seen something like them around here advertised as a glamping option in various parks. Seems to be a more low profile version of the yurt?
How cold does your winter get, there?
Yeah much bigger than I expected!
Bell tents... yeah I guess they are a smaller scale of a yurt, I've not thought about them like that : )
Where we are it gets down to around the zero mark, if we travel south which we usually do through winter it can get down to minus 6 degrees Celsius. Our summer here at worst gets to around 46 degrees. Between 20 and low 30's is nice!
46!!! Wow. Your climate is a 12 degree shift from what I'm used to!
In parts of Qld this summer some places reached 50 which seems crazy! When I was growing up and it reached 40, kids were sent home from school. It seems to be very much the norm now and they're saying 50 is the new 40. We have high humidity too... and on those days we can easily be sitting at 80% humidity which is most can be most uncomfortable!
If you ever visit, don't come Dec/Jan! ; )
I didn't know humans could survive when it's 50, haha, that's insanity. But still more unimaginable if it's 50 + humidity. It's the high humidity in Ontario that makes the relatively low heat (up to 32) so disagreeable.
It's horrible!! You just sweat and stick to everything!! On those days we're all heading for bodies of water or air conditioning. Most homes have air-con now, we don't however. I prefer to live without it but on extreme heat days the electricity grid can falter with the extra pressures of everyone using their air conditioners. Our house is pretty cool though which is great through summer, not so much through winter :/
Our humidity today was at 62% in the middle of winter, lol.
Cool night shot... i like how it's almost 3 different pictures. The sky . teepees and the random lights on the path
Thanks! Yeah, there's a few things going on in the photo. At the time I was really struck by how the red lights and the path lead towards the teepees, and I'm glad it translated somewhat in the photo. The sky worked out really well too.
Sure did!
Also i need to test something ... @jarvie
Incredible photos as usual! And lol at the shadow puppets one. Guess you have to put the timer on, run in there, hold the pose, and hope it doesn't turn out blurry.
I'd love to sleep in a teepee. Do you have to set it up yourself, or is it done for ya?
Yes, exactly right, @somethingrandom! And I was never sure how the pose would look in the photo, haha, so it took a lot of attempts. Thanks. :)
These teepees are permanent (at least they're there for the summer, they probably take the canvas off for the winter), so all you have to do is show up. I'm not sure if they provide cots or anything like that (they were empty when I was there), but you would need to bring your own bedding.
I live in a big city . I saw stars like that twice in my life . Watching stars is nice , once we were watching one star togheter , then it started to glow so intesively , after that dissapeared . Remember until today
Wait, it did what???? That's not normal star behavior!!! I wonder what it was you witnessed?
Beautiful shots as always mate ! I will have to give it a go. Perhaps I can build one in the backyard this summer ;-)
Thanks! Yeah, why not? More of a Native North American thing than strictly Canadian, but you might as well check it off the list. :)
Yes the natives up here were more into dugouts than Teepees. I guess it was better in the winter.