Grasslands National Park is a Canadian national park in the province of Saskatchewan. It consists of two separate areas of parklands about 16 miles (26 kilometers) apart. Both areas of Grasslands National Park share their southern borders with Montana, in the United States.
The park lies in a region of rolling grasslands cut by deep valleys. The rugged Killdeer Badlands dominate the eastern section of the park. This area contains buttes (steep, flat-topped hills), plateaus, and hoodoos (column-shaped rock formations caused by erosion). The Killdeer Badlands were the site of the first recorded discovery of dinosaur remains in western Canada, in 1874. The Frenchman River is the main feature of the western section of the park. The famous 70 Mile Butte rises about 3,028 feet (923 meters) above the river valley. A number of creeks wind through the western and eastern parklands. Extreme temperatures in the park can reach –58 °F (–50 °C) in the winter and 104 °F (40 °C) in the summer.
Grasslands National Park preserves a rare kind of mixed-grass prairie environment. Needle-and-thread grass, western wheat grass, blue grama grass, and wild rose are some of the plants that thrive there. Animals that live in the park include badgers, bobcats, coyotes, deer, prairie dogs, pronghorns, and skunks. Many of the animals that live on the prairie, including the sage grouse and piping plover, are rare and endangered species.
An agreement between the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan established Grasslands National Park in 1988. Activities for visitors include camping, hiking, horseback riding, nature viewing, and photography.
