Manitoba - Fabulous Western Canada: Capture the Excitement of the Great West! - page 225

5 Discovering Manitoba's roots at Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site. © Parks Canada / Cornellier, A.

3

The vast inland sea of Lake Winnipeg is a perfect sailing spot. © iStockphoto.com / Deborah Clague

Grand Beach Provincial Park is the
most popular beach in Manitoba,
hands down. Situated 100km north of
Winnipeg, it boasts lovely white sand
and grassy 8m-high dunes that seem
to have been lifted directly from Cape
Cod.

Turtle Mountain Provincial
Park

Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, com-
posed of compacted coal and glacial
deposits, rises more than 250m above
the surrounding prairie land. Explorer
La Vérendrye called it the “blue jewel
of the plains,” and its gentle hills lend
themselves to mountain biking, horse-
back riding and hiking. There is also,
of course, a considerable population of
the beautiful painted turtles that gave
the mountain its name.

SOUTHERN MANITOBA

Steinbach

Located southeast of Winnipeg,
Steinbach is the largest town in the
region and features the popular
Mennonite Heritage Village , a
17ha village laid out in the traditional
Mennonite style. The buildings focus
on the lives of the Mennonites, people
of Dutch origin who started emigrating
to the province from Russia in 1874.

CENTRAL MANITOBA

Portage la Prairie

West of Winnipeg lies Portage la
Prairie, founded in 1738 by French-
Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de
la Vérendrye as a resting stop on the
canoe route to Lake Manitoba. The