Whiteshell Provincial Park

The Whiteshell sits on the western edge of the Canadian Shield, granite outcrop, jack pine and hundreds of lakes, and it holds one of the most significant concentrations of petroforms in North America: figures of snakes, turtles, fish and human forms laid out in boulders on bare rock at Bannock Point and elsewhere, made by Anishinaabe people over a long period and still used for ceremony. They are teaching sites rather than art, and visitors are asked to walk the perimeter, leave the stones untouched and not treat them as a photo backdrop. The park also has the Alfred Hole Goose Sanctuary and a Shield hiking network.

What you actually see

• The petroforms - boulder figures on bare granite at Bannock Point.
• The Shield lakes - hundreds of granite-rimmed lakes with pine and rock.
• The goose sanctuary - a Canada goose refuge founded from four orphaned goslings.
• The hiking network - Shield trails including the Hunt Lake and Pine Point routes.

When to go

June to September for canoeing and hiking; winter brings skiing and snowmobiling. Blackflies peak in June. Petroform sites are used for ceremony and may be in use.

Honest expectations

The petroforms are sacred sites in active use, and moving or rearranging stones is a serious offence to the communities involved. They are subtle and low, not monumental. Summer weekends fill campgrounds.

Nearby

Winnipeg lies west; the Ontario border is east.