“Ka-tep-whet?” asked the Cree, or “Who Calls?” The French version, “Qui appelle?”, was contracted over time to become the name for the river, the valley and two separate towns.

This side trip into the Qu’Appelle Valley (Ecopoints 3–6) offers you a study in contrasts. On the dry north slope, which is tilted toward the sun, temperatures soar in summer. Prickly pear and pincushion cactus grow on the hillsides; hardy fescue grasses predominate and birds glide the thermal updrafts. Hoofs of grazing cattle and slumping soils give the steepest hills a terraced appearance, and the views on this side seem almost Mediterranean. Across the river, a dense aspen and balsam poplar forest grows on the shady northfacing slope. The lower valley is prime amphibian and reptile habitat, and home to white-tailed deer, coyote, fox and Richardson’s ground squirrel.

To travellers, the valley always seems to appear suddenly. About 17 kilometres north of Whitewood, you begin the descent. A rest stop partway down has a natural spring where locals draw good drinking water. If you want your first glimpse of the valley to come as it once did for visitors in the days before engines, take the steep and quite arduous trail from the spring up though bur oak to a plateau where Saskatoon berries grow and black bear might be seen. A little farther along the path, views of the valley await.

By car, a rest stop five kilometres west along Highway 247 offers another chance to get acquainted with the valley. A glacial spillway, the valley was formed by the enormous runoff of meltwater from glacial Lake Regina that lay in southern Saskatchewan some 14,000 years ago.