Rainy days are welcome this summer at Saskatoon’s Meewasin Valley

Summer has officially started, but with cloudy skies and rainy afternoons, it is hard to find a place to relax and enjoy nature.

At Meewasin Valley in Saskatoon, employees are happy to share the summer with a few rainy days.

Renny Grilz, Resource Management Officer for Meewasin Valley Authority told 650CKOM that the rain has been super helpful in bringing life back to the valley.

“There’s a lot more vegetation out this year,” he said. “Our native grasses and our wildflowers – we’ve seen a major flush of wildflowers this year because of that rain.”

Grilz said the trails have not flooded and no events have been canceled this summer due to the rain.

He explained if severe weather occurs, events may be postponed.

“If it is a rainy day we do have umbrellas, and we tell people to bring their rain jackets and appropriate footwear,” Grilz said.

“We’ve been running our events all spring and haven’t had to cancel due to weather, except for a couple of volunteer events due to excessive wind.”

The ever-popular beavers at Meewasin have not been affected by the rain. Grilz said the beaver activity has been the same as prior summers.

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Samantha Cowan, Tourism & Experiences Coordinator for Meewasin Valley Authority said events in the rain have been fun to host.

“Our birding breakfast tours, for example, just finished up this past Sunday,” Cowan said.

“It was quite cool to run the program in the rain. We got to see the valley and bird behavior in a different way. Luckily, everyone in our group last Sunday had an adventurous spirit and we ended up having a great time. We eventually warmed up with some hot beverages when we got back to the interpretive center.”

Cowan said guests who want to take the tour again on a sunnier day were offered a free guide or a discount on future programs.

“Our next tourism program coming up right away is our Wildflower Walks,” Cowan said. “The rain has been welcome to the flowers we’ll be talking about on that program.”

A trail in Meewasin Valley. (Payton Zillich/650CKOM)

Meewasin Valley (Payton Zillich/650CKOM)

Meewasin Valley (Payton Zillich/650CKOM)