Regina and Wascana Centre: Canada's Hidden Urban Park

Wascana Centre is 930 hectares of park, lake, and greenspace in the middle of Regina, Saskatchewan — roughly three times the size of Central Park in New York, larger than Stanley Park in Vancouver, and one of the largest urban parks in North America. It is also, outside of Saskatchewan, almost completely unknown. This is partly because Regina itself has an undeserved reputation as a stop on the way to somewhere more interesting, and partly because the prairies don't get the marketing infrastructure that more photogenic parts of the country attract. The park is genuinely remarkable and deserves to be better known.

The Park

Wascana Centre was developed in the 1960s through a joint agreement between the City of Regina, the University of Regina, and the provincial government — all three occupy major facilities within the park boundaries. The centerpiece is Wascana Lake, an artificial lake created by damming Wascana Creek in 1883, which provides a wildlife habitat, recreational water, and visual centerpiece for the park. The lake hosts significant waterfowl populations including Canada geese, pelicans, cormorants, and great blue herons. In winter it freezes for skating.

The Saskatchewan Legislative Building, completed in 1912, faces the lake from the north and is one of the more handsome provincial legislatures in Canada — a Renaissance revival stone building with a dome that can be toured free of charge on weekdays. The grounds around it are formal gardens that run to the lakeshore. The combination of building and lake, particularly in the spring when the surrounding trees are leafing out, is a genuinely beautiful urban prospect.

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum, within the park near the legislative grounds, is one of the better natural history museums in the prairies. The Earth Sciences Gallery has an excellent dinosaur collection — Saskatchewan has produced significant fossil discoveries including the T. rex specimen Stan, whose cast is on display, and the Scotty T. rex discovered near Eastend in 1991 that remains one of the largest specimens ever found. The First Nations Gallery, developed in consultation with Indigenous nations of the province, covers the cultures and histories of Saskatchewan's First Nations with depth and authenticity that more prominent national institutions have sometimes failed to match.

The Mackenzie Art Gallery

The Mackenzie Art Gallery, adjacent to the museum, is the major art gallery for southern Saskatchewan and houses a permanent collection with significant holdings in Canadian art including Group of Seven works and a strong Prairie realist collection. The gallery runs temporary exhibitions year-round; check what's on before your visit as the exhibitions are often of national significance despite the gallery's modest profile outside the region.

Cycling and Walking

The Wascana Centre Authority maintains an extensive trail network within the park that connects to Regina's citywide cycling infrastructure. A circuit of the lake is about 5 kilometres of paved trail. The full park trail network extends through several areas including the Waterfowl Display Ponds, Habitat Island (accessible by footbridge, with dense waterfowl nesting), and the Lakeview area with its formal promenade. The park is particularly pleasant in the morning and evening when the light across the lake is at its best and the waterfowl activity is highest.

Regina itself, beyond Wascana, has more going for it than its reputation suggests. The Cathedral neighbourhood has excellent independent restaurants and a weekend farmers' market. The 13th Avenue strip has become a genuine food and coffee neighbourhood of the kind that usually requires a larger city. And the flat prairie light in the late afternoon — the city sits on virtually flat ground with enormous sky in every direction — is something that photographers who've experienced it return to.