Nopiming Provincial Park
Nopiming Provincial Park is located 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Winnipeg and covers 1,429 square kilometers (552 square miles).
Nopiming Park is characterized by rock outcrops, lakes, rivers, and marshes. There are more than 100 lakes of different sizes. The shorelines consist mainly of rock cliffs, spruce bogs, and beaches.
The name Nopiming is an Anishinabe (Saulteaux, Ojibway) word meaning entrance to the wilderness. Nopiming Park is a natural park whose purpose is to:
- Preserve areas that are representative of the Lac Seul Upland portion of the Precambrian Boreal Forest Natural Region
- Preserve areas of Woodland caribou habitat
- Provide nature-oriented recreational opportunities such as canoeing, hiking, camping, and fishing, in a largely undisturbed environment
Rock is a prominent feature of Nopiming Park. There are many rock outcrops and shoreline cliffs, spotted with orange and black lichens. The Precambrian rocks formed more than 2.5 billion years ago and the area was once part of an immense mountain range.
Today, the forests consist of aspen (poplar) and birch, mixed with evergreens such as pine and spruce. Underbrush is mostly hazel, alder, and mountain maple. Many different wildflowers appear throughout the season. Around the end of July, blueberries are plentiful in many areas.
Larger animals of the park include wolves, black bears, moose, white tailed deer, and woodland caribou.
Quesnel Lake was named after Arthur Quesnel, a trader who lived in the town of Manigotagan in the early 1900s.
The road into Caribou Landing, where Quesnel Lake Caribou Lodge is located, was originally constructed to bring equipment and supplies to Central Manitoba’s mines. Work began on the road as early as 1922 when it was just a path between mineral claims. Once at Caribou Landing, freight was taken by boat from Quesnel Lake to Manigotagan Lake, which was connected to Long Lake by a tracked portage. Once across Long Lake, there were roads leading to the Central and other mines.
The name Manigotagan is a Saulteaux Indian phrase Mannuh-Gundahgan, which means Bad Throat. The place where the waterfall makes a noise “like a bull moose with a bad throat.” The native legend is that this eerie sound came from Wood Falls, some three miles from the mouth of the river.