When people think of Canada, they do not think of Winnipeg. They think of Vancouver, forests, mountains, Toronto, maybe whales, maybe polar bears, but not Winnipeg. Most have never even heard of Winnipeg.
But I am an avid supporter of my city and province of birth. Winnipeggers complain ALL the time but it irks me when they put the city down because they don’t go out and do anything. There’s so much to see and do, there’s really no reason to be so moody (granted 6 months of a generally very cold winter will get on anyone’s nerves).
It’s time for a little more appreciation for the centre of Canada so I’ve decided to compile a list of my favourite places to go in Winnipeg and Manitoba.
The Forks
The biggest attraction in Winnipeg is probably The Forks. It’s where tourists are told to go and it’s where major celebrations are held throughout the year.
It’s called The Forks because it’s where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet (and fork). Historically, the land was utilised by Aboriginal populations and then became an important fixture in the fur trade because of its location on the two rivers. Nearby, Fort Rouge was set up and the site became a sort of trading hub. Later on, it was a key site for the development of the railway through the prairies. Many of the buildings at The Forks now are from that era. The main market place was created from the old railway-owned stables (the food court and shops are separated more or less into each stable). Other buildings have formed the Children’s Museum and The Johnston Terminal, which houses a variety of shops including a cool antique store in the basement and The Old Spaghetti Factory.
The Forks also helped promote immigration in the late 1800s, dubbing Winnipeg the “Gateway to the Canadian West” because of the immigration sheds erected at the site, housing 500 people each at a time. The people who came through the site would populate and change Western Canada for the better. (Source: https://www.theforks.com/about/history)
The Forks is now made up of a series of unique shops, restaurants, and bars as well as The Children’s Museum and The Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Additionally, you can find performances for various events throughout the year on the outdoor stage, busking sites, and the Manitoba Theatre for Young People (MTYP).
Outdoors, there are great playgrounds for children, including a splash park in the summers. There is also a river trail that you can walk along when the water is low enough. It was actually engineered so that it could withstand the regular springtime flooding that occurs without crumbling into the waters. People use it as a route for work on a regular basis.
Even better, in winter, the rivers are used for curling and hockey on a polished ice rink as well as the world record-holding longest naturally frozen skating trail. (Source: https://www.theforks.com/events/river-trail) It’s not uncommon to see people using the opportunity to skate to work in the cold.
One thing that I like about Winnipeg winters is the fact that there’s so much more sun compared to somewhere like London, despite the latter being a warmer country. So even in the middle of winter, you can go down to The Forks and enjoy whatever is going on at the time.
It’s also popular for Canada Day, New Year’s Eve, The Festival of Fools, and a whole lot more: https://www.theforks.com/attractions
Every time I go home, I make it a point to visit The Forks, regardless of the weather. It’s not Winnipeg without it.
Assiniboine Park
Assiniboine Park (or Ass Park, depending who you ask) is a huge park full of so many different things but is perfect for something as simple as an evening walk.
Like The Forks, it’s a very popular destination with things going on all year — from ballet in the park to charity walks to seasonal activities. My family and I definitely dressed up in house-related gear to attend the wizarding world that had been set up at Ass Park for the release of “Cursed Child”. There are some really unique things that you will encounter there.
Additionally, there are beautiful sculpture gardens, ponds, and general nature to wow you. One of my best friends got married in the sculpture gardens this past summer and it was legit magical.
The best part, in my opinion, is the Assiniboine Park Zoo. It’s all about conservation and works hard to make the animals’ existences positive ones. Regardless of where you stand on zoos, they do a good job. Their newest exhibit is the Journey to Churchill exhibit filled with orphaned polar bears from Manitoba’s north, Churchill. These are polar bears that would otherwise starve to death in the wilderness. The zoo is also currently aiming to do similar exhibits for other animals. It’s worth visiting just to see what they’re up to as it has changed immensely over the last decade or so.
Birds Hill Park
Living in the North of Winnipeg, getting to somewhere like Assiniboine Park could be a hassle, so we always instead went to Kildonan Park to walk around something a little smaller. But Birds Hill Park was about the same distance as Assiniboine Park without all the traffic and with a lot more nature, so the South End people missed out on the convenience of that one I guess.
Birds Hill is about 20-30 minutes away from Winnipeg. It’s home to a lot of hiking trails and nature, a large beach, cycling trails, stables, and places for weddings. Every summer, the Winnipeg Folk Festival makes it crazy busy but the park is so big that if you were to go to the beach that same weekend, you wouldn’t really know Folk Fest was going on (or at least that’s what happened that one time I went).
It’s a provincial park and does have an entry fee but you can get some free weekends here and there, and the entry fee is like $5 so it’s not going to break the bank. Season passes are available as well, but in the fall and winter, you don’t need to pay to enter anyway because nothing is really going on at that time.
We mostly went there for the beach, but I would also go on some hiking excursions with my mom and sister(s) or on my own occasionally. It’s crazy big when you get into it and start exploring beyond the main paths. It’s also breathtaking in the autumn because of all the changing leaves.
The lake there is man-made, so it’s drained every fall and filled every summer, which is kind of cool. It’s fun to explore in the fall, where you can feed chickadees straight from your hand (look out for the 50th Anniversary bench for Tina and Joe, my cousins’ grandparents, where the chickadees are very eager). You may also see some deer or, if you’re really lucky, a black bear. Watch out for the wild turkeys too!
One of my favourite nature-related memories at Birds Hill was one evening at dusk in fall. My mom, younger sister, and I were walking back to our car after having walked around one of the main trails. We came to the lake — I can’t remember if it had been drained yet or not (my mind says it was drained, but what happened makes me think it wasn’t drained) — and we started to hear some geese. The sound started to crescendo and as they got closer, hundreds of geese started appearing from every which way like this mass meeting was to take place the evening before they all started heading south or something. It was actually amazing, just the sheer amount and the incredible volume. I wish I still had the video, but it was back in my Blackberry days so who knows that happened to it.
The point is: Birds Hill is definitely worth the journey should you visit Winnipeg. It’s a major thing I miss when I start to feel homesick.
Whiteshell
Moving further out of Winnipeg towards the Manitoba/Ontario border, you hit the Canadian Shield. The Canadian Shield (also called the Laurentian Plateau) is a large area of exposed Precambrian rock that covers over half of Canada. Whiteshell Provincial Park is a perfect place to hike and experience the rock-covered land. Manitoba’s geological history is actually very interesting. Read a little more here.
Whiteshell is a great place for camping and hiking, home to a bunch of sites and trails that will allow you to get back to nature with possibly disrupted cell signals due to large rocks all around you.
Some of the trails are short and easy to do while others take several hours and are more difficult. You have to be careful in some areas as the markings aren’t always clear and so you might end up scaling a very steep part of forest to find the trail again (not that I have any personal experience with that or anything…). It’s also an area that is more prone to black bear sightings.
The biggest trail that is partially in Whiteshell is the Mantario trail, which is a multi-day trail that is on the border of Manitoba and Ontario (hence the name). There’s a Facebook group dedicated to the trail so that you can keep updated if you ever decide to hike. Sometimes due to excessive rainfall or dryness, some trails will be fully or partially closed so it’s good to check.
I’ve been camping in Whiteshell a couple of times and hiking many more. If you love nature like I do, I certainly recommend checking it out!
Riding Mountain National Park
Keeping with the whole nature theme, Riding Mountain is another excellent stop.
When I was a kid, my grandparents lived near Riding Mountain in a small town called Gilbert Plains. My cousins and I loved visiting there and we would often stop at Riding Mountain to explore, see sights, or go to the beach on Clear Lake, which lives up to its name 100%.
Riding Mountain is full of a lot of trails and really nice campsites with a small town for anything you may have forgotten (or if you just want a nice restaurant meal instead of campfire food). There are events daily throughout the summer for kids as well as a pretty nice playground that they go crazy for.
It’s a place where you might see a black bear or moose or any number of other Canadian animals. Even cooler, there’s a bison safari that you can go on that is completely free where you can see bison roaming around free and wild (though the area is fenced in). You drive through and can get out at a lookout tower to try and catch a glimpse of the herd. The bison is Manitoba’s provincial animal, so it’s really cool to be able to see them in that setting. Note: back in Winnipeg, you can see something similar and for a cost at Fort Whyte where they pile you into one of those safari buses and teach you about bison. Sometimes they might charge at you. It’s a wild ride.
Another thing I love about Riding Mountain is the random picnic areas. I took my nieces camping there in summer 2018 and we got kind of bored of just eating at our own campsite, so we packed up what we needed and, after the bison safari, we stopped at this picnic area, which had multiple picnic tables and fire pits but was completely empty, and we made our dinner there. It was right by the water too, so we climbed down from the grassy area to the shore and walked along there. It was nice and sunny and close to sunset, so it made for some nice pictures.
There are other things in Riding Mountain like boat rentals and horseback riding too.
It is a LONG drive from Winnipeg (roughly 4 hours, depending on which side you come from) when you’re also driving everywhere within the park, but it’s worth the journey. And if you go the route that passes through a bunch of towns instead of the middle-of-nowhere route, then you can also see a lot more of the province (like Happy Rock in Gladstone, Manitoba). There’s also a giant hill that is fun to go down but tough to go up in the car. I wouldn’t go behind an 18-wheeler or drive a manual on that hill, but it’s a small moment of fun at the beginning or end of your drive there.
I haven’t talked about everything great that Winnipeg and Manitoba have to offer: Grand Beach, Rainbow Stage, Fort Whyte, Assiniboine Downs, etc. But I have talked about places that I tend to miss the most in London. The theme is: nature. London ain’t got that good nature.
I also haven’t mentioned things that are temporary Winnipeg fixtures throughout the year. I would encourage you to experience Festival du Voyager, Folklorama, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Folk Fest, the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, or any number of other fun events that take place annually.
If you’re planning to visit Canada, making a stop in Winnipeg will be a unique experience — if you do it right — and will give you a perspective that cities likes Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver will not be able to give you.
Travelled Adventures 