Location: Saskatchewan Map
Area: 3,874 km2 (1,496 sq mi)
Prince Albert National Park is a Canadian national
park located in the center of the province of Saskatchewan. It
covers 3874 km². Your nearest city is Prince Albert. It was declared
a national park on March 24, 1927, but its inauguration was on
August 10, 1928, carried out by the Prime Minister William Lyon
Mackenzie King. The park is open all year, but is most visited in
the period from May to September. The main entrance to the park is
actually 80 kilometers north of Prince Albert, via the highway,
which enters the park at its southeast corner. Prince Albert
National Park has an elevation of 488 meters on the west side and
724 meters on the east side.
Waskesiu is the only city in the
park, located on the southern shore of Lake Waskesiu. Most of the
facilities and services that one would expect to find in a
multipurpose park are available, such as souvenir shops, small
supermarkets, gas station, laundry, restaurants, hotels and motels,
rental cabins, a small room cinema, the detachment of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), site for camps, many beaches, picnic
areas, tennis courts, bowling and golf on green grass. Prince Albert
National Park also contains the cabin of the naturalist and
conservationist Gray Owl, on Lake Ajawaan.
The development of
the park as a recreational destination has led to the southeastern
region of the park boundaries, places like Lake Christopher, Lake
Emma, Sunnyside Beach and Lake Anglin to become tourist focus.
Until the creation of the National Park of Grasslands in the 1980s,
Prince Albert National Park was the only one in the province.
Prince Albert National Park covers an area or
3,874 km² (1,496 sq mi), which makes it larger than Cornwall in the
UK. It is 200 km (120 mi) north of Saskatoon, and 80 km (50 mi)
north of the city for which it is named, Prince Albert.
Prince Albert National Park is open all year but the most visited
period is from May to September. The park ranges in elevation from
488 metres (1,601 ft) on the western side to 724 metres (2,375 ft)
on the eastern side.
The hamlet Waskesiu Lake is the only
settlement within the park. It is on the southern shore of Waskesiu
Lake, and offers facilities and services.
Park office, ☎ +1
306-663-4522, toll-free: +1 888-773-8888, e-mail:
panp.info@pc.gc.ca
A national park pass or daily fee for entry
applies. Special fishing licences are required.
Daily fees
for 2018:
Adult $7.80
Senior $6.80
Youth and children under
18 free
Family/group $15.70
Annual pas (early bird pass
available Dec 1-Mar 31) (2018):
Adult $ 39.20 ($ 31.40)
Senior
$ 34.30 ($ 27.40)
Youth and children under 18 free
Family/group $ 78.50 ($ 78.50)
Fishing permits (2018):
Daily $ 9.80
Annual $ 34.30
Parks Canada Passes
The
Discovery Pass provides unlimited admission for a full year at over
80 Parks Canada places that typically charge a daily entrance fee It
provides faster entry and is valid for 12 months from date of
purchase. Prices for 2018 (taxes included):
Family/group (up
to 7 people in a vehicle): $136.40
Children and youth (0-17):
free
Adult (18-64): $67.70
Senior (65+): $57.90
The
Cultural Access Pass: people who have received their Canadian
citizenship in the past year can qualify for free entry to some
sites.
The park is home to:
a population of beavers, dozens of specimens
of which were exported to restore populations elsewhere that were
decimated or extinct due to the hunting and trapping they suffered.
A
population of wolves which has been the subject of some studies
A
species of fish (black bass) which was deliberately introduced there
a population of caribou and bison (which were victims of anthrax).
Gray Owl
It is in this park that Gray Owl lived part of his life.
This is not where the movie “Beaver People” was filmed; film showing
Gray Owl and Anahareo, with their two tame beavers, raised after their
mother was killed, but Gray Owl after being hired by the Canadian
Dominion Parks Service as a natural park ranger and naturalist and
installed in 1931 with his beavers in a cabin in Riding Mountain
National Park (Manitoba), moved in 1932 to Prince Albert National Park.
He established himself there as an honorary warden responsible for the
protection of beavers and is buried there near his small house located
on the shores of Lake Ajawaan less than a kilometer from the north end
of Kingsmere Lake.
Global changes, global warming, loss of biodiversity, and regular arrival of invasive exotic species, associated with an increasing fragmentation of territories and a circulation of ubiquitous species and genes favored by trade and transport (roads, canals, planes, boats, etc.) already have direct and indirect effects on biomes and therefore on the parks which seek to preserve their specificities.