Riding Mountain Biosphere Driving Tour
Riding Mountain Biosphere Driving Tour
Explore some of the highlights around the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve while soaking in the scenery, history and culture of the area. The towns and villages surrounding Riding Mountain National Park are ripe with surprises and you will find no better place for a “Sunday drive”. (map)
Distance: 411 km
Time recommended: 2 days
- Rainbow Beach
Watch the sun rise over Lake Dauphin with a picnic breakfast on Rainbow Beach!
Highway 20 East - Commemoration of Lieutenant-Colonel W.G. Barker V.C.
Visit the statue of Lt. Colonel W.G. Barker V.C. at the Dauphin Airport Terminal – he is Canada’s most decorated WWI flying ace!
Highway 10 South
Dauphin, Manitoba - Hamilton Community Centre and School Cairn
Provincial Road 582 - Rural Municipality of Ochre River - Village of Makinak
Cruise through the small Village of Makinak and take in the historic sites of this once-thriving farming town: Makinak Churches and Cemetery, Community
Centre, the School Cairn and foundation.
Junction of Provincial Roads 583 and 480 - Town of Laurier
Pass through the town of Laurier and enjoy the scenery of the northwest corner of the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve. Rolling hills, large farmsteads and French-Canadian culture have shaped this area and its people.
Provincial Road 480 - Village of McCreary
McCreary is your first stop back on the Parks Route is the former home of the Mount Agassiz Ski Area. McCreary’s former CN Rail Station houses 234 specimens of the Baker Butterfly Collection. Be sure to stop for a photo with Alpine Archie!
Highway 5 - East Gate National Historic Site
Take a nostalgic step back in time to the early days of Riding Mountain National Park. The East Gate National Historic Site is a nationally significant example of the Rustic Design tradition of the 1930's in Canada's National Parks, and is the last of three log entrance gates in Riding Mountain.
Highway 19 - Poor Michael’s Bookshop
Be sure to watch for wildlife on your way to Onanole, Manitoba through Riding Mountain National Park. Here you will find Poor Michael's Bookshop: a bookshop, coffee bar, and art shop that is a must-stop location when visiting the Riding Mountain area.
Onanole, Manitoba – Highway 10
(204) 848-0336 - Village of Horod
The Horod Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Church opened in 1922 and the Parish Hall in 1938: another piece of rich Ukrainian history in the Parkland region.
Provincial Road 354
Horod School Division No. 1364 - Ukrainian settlers in the south Riding Mountain area were quick to establish a thriving community and this school, built in 1906, is a remarkable survivor in Manitoba. These modest buildings were being erected all over the southern half of the province, but the site is now a museum and still contains the original teacherage and privies. - Historic Site: Swistun Pioneer Settlement Park: Replica of Original Buddas Ukrainian Settlement
These unique structures cannot be missed! When the Ukrainian settlers arrived in 1899, their first homes were small tent-shaped pole structures covered with straw, known as buddas. Michael Swistun, was born in a budda in 1900 and the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus’ “Strongest Man in the World”: he later constructed two buddas on the original site next to the settlement trail and donated them, along with 80 acres of land, as a historical site. - Olha General Store
Olha was the first district to be settled by Ukrainian settlers south of Riding Mountain, in 1899. A poignant experience can be had at nearby Patterson Lake, where a Ukrainian Settlement Monument and Mass Grave honours 42 children and 3 women who died of Scarlett Fever while traveling to their settlements.
Provincial Road 566 - Marconi School
Marconi School was built in 1922 and has been fully restored as a museum. The standardized design, produced by the Department of Education, was adapted from domestic styles of the day, which favoured a cottage look and the placement of shingles (rather than horizontal siding) on the walls.
Provincial Road 577 - Rossman Lake
Stop to relax on the shores of the lake, or better yet, grab your fishing rod and try to land yourself a dinner of tasty walleye! Stay overnight at the Rossman Lake Resort and enjoy the prairie sunset.
Provincial Road 577 - Five Prairie Giants
The Inglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site is internationally recognized as a unique and enduring architectural symbol of the Prairies. These ‘Five Prairie Giants’ represent one of the most important periods in the development of Canada’s grain industry from 1900 to 1930, and are some of the last of their kind.
Inglis, Manitoba
Provincial Road 366 - Petlura Ascension of the Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church
Petlura, Manitoba
Provincial Road 366 - Watson Crossley Community Museum
This one is for the car aficionados. Ford Model T’s, antique farm machinery, and automobiles: legend has it that one of the historic vehicles with bullet
holes was associated with Al Capone!! The museum has a large collection from the early history of the community, including a pioneer home, rural school house, early settler's log house and an old Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
450 Railway Avenue North
Grandview, Manitoba - Negrych Pioneer Homestead
This National Historic Site is one of the most impressive of its kind in North America, with beautiful natural landscapes surrounding the oldest and most complete set of pioneer building built in the style of the Carpathian Mountains in the Ukraine.
Mile 156 North, off of Provincial Road 274
RM of Gilbert Plains, Manitoba
(204) 548-2163 - Dauphin Rail Museum
101-1st Ave. N.W.
Dauphin, Manitoba
(204) 638-5495 - Fort Dauphin Museum
4th Avenue SW and Jackson Street
Dauphin, Manitoba
Phone: (204) 638-6630