NADINE ROBINSON: Luxury meets adventure in ‘nature oasis’

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Dorothy didn’t say, “Wolves, and bison, and elk, oh my!” But she might have in Northern Ontario. We weren’t following the yellow brick road to Oz, but there was a yellow line splitting the sides of the highways from Sault Ste. Marie to Timmins. 

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It’s a fun drive. Some sections looked like someone had shaken out a long hallway runner, but left the ripples and hadn’t pulled it to lay flat again. My two (not so little) munchkins shared the drive, navigating the twists, wide-sweeping curves, and rollercoaster-worthy drops. 

We knew that we weren’t in Kansas anymore, as our distinctly Canadian safari played out. Throughout our trip, we saw four of the top five Canadian beasts, but no bears. (Considering that we get black bears in the backyard regularly, it wasn’t a loss.) We also saw Canada Geese, black and white swans, an eagle, and deer. 

Cedar Meadows Resort & Spa has long been known for their elk and bison habitats, but more recently they added a truly memorable immersive nature experience to their property. Now, guests can sleep in glass bedrooms facing out onto a 10-acre wolf enclosure. I’m not sure who is luckier, the wolves rehomed from cramped captivity here, or the visitors who get to see bush puppies in all their glory. 

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As we approached our little cabin, my camera was ready to document any wolf we saw. We passed the quaint kitchen and luxury shower to hunker down in the bedroom where floor-to-ceiling windows (and a glass roof) allow for an incredible immersion into the wolf habitat. 

There are five wolf cabins with phenomenal views of the hauntingly majestic wolves.  We stayed one night in a wolf cabin, and we maximized our time looking at the eleven wolves and four wolf pups. The joy the pups and wolves displayed, bounding and playing, made me think how happy I was to be here with my ‘pups.’ (That said, I didn’t feel the need to sneak attack my kids, nor grasp them with my teeth and carry them into the woods.) 

The next night we stayed in the main resort building. We took the tractor tour through the bison and elk enclosures, where we saw an eagle and deer too. We had braised bison with a blueberry sauce at The Voyageur Dining Room and went to the nature spa for hot and cold water therapy treatments. 

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By the time the trip was done, we had over 1,300 photos. Not surprisingly, I deleted the majority of the first photos we’d shot, not knowing how close the wolves would soon come to our windows out of curiosity. 

I really didn’t want to click my heels together and say, ‘There’s no place like home.’ So, we took a different route back to the Sault through Wawa to keep the adventure alive a bit longer. Perhaps it was the Good Witch of the North who made a moose sighting possible, grazing alongside Highway 101. 

Luxury met adventure in this nature oasis. Stay in cabin 306 if you want to be close to the youngish dark brown wolves and one gray one. But to get the best views of the pups, I’d suggest cabin 308 or 309. Regardless, I can’t recommend following the yellow-lined road enough to have your own face-to-face encounter with the wolves. We didn’t see a rainbow, but at Cedar Meadows “skies are blue… And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true.” 

Nadine Robinson’s column runs Saturdays. You can reach her at [email protected] or on twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @theinkran. 

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