Canada
Unploughed prairie runs to the horizon where bison graze beneath some of Canada's darkest skies.
Grass moves in provinces of wind with nothing vertical to stop the eye. After dark, the Milky Way arrives like weather.
Grasslands protects rare unbroken prairie in two blocks of buttes, badlands and bison range near the Montana line. Black-tailed prairie dogs, ferruginous hawks and dinosaur-bearing exposures fill the apparent emptiness. Val Marie's single hotel and dark-sky campsites are the honest infrastructure.
Solo
Empty roads, prairie-dog towns and dark-sky camps suit a self-contained traveller.
Couple
Share dawn wildlife drives and a night sky with no glow on any horizon.
Val Marie's one hotel grills burgers from local grass-fed beef year-round.
Beyond it, carry everything; the park itself has no services.

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Whales feed where the cold Saguenay meets the St Lawrence beneath a village of red roofs.