Day Trip to the Cochin Lighthouse August 5, 2019 · 3 min. readThis article may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I haven't gone on a major trip since my journey to Riding Mountain National Park last autumn, so I booked off a week to travel out west. However, things didn't work out as I had planned, and my vacation turned more-or-less into a staycation.
Thankfully, it wasn't all for naught. I managed to get away one day, and I did a couple of little day trips throughout the week too. The day I got away I wanted to go as far north as possible, and I chose the Cochin Lighthouse.
The Cochin Lighthouse is just north of the Battlefords and it is the only lighthouse in the landlocked province of Saskatchewan. It sits on the top of Pirot Hill in the village of Cochin and shines a light out onto the nearby Jackfish Lake – or as locals call it, the "Cochin Ocean".
The lighthouse sits on land owned by Don Pirot – whose name looks like "pirate", but isn't pronounced that way – and is leased to the village for 99 years. It was on his request that the hill was named "Pirot Hill". The lighthouse was constructed in 1989 and in 2017 it received a facelift following decades of graffiti.
The lighthouse is fully equipped with a working spotlight, and functions, like any other lighthouse you'd find on the coast. The biggest difference between those lighthouses and this one is that you can't go inside. I think this would be an excellent place to have a museum or gallery but by itself, it is still very impressive.
The lighthouse may be visible from Highway 4, but don't let it fool you. To reach the lighthouse you need to climb 152 (some say 153) wooden stairs, and these stairs are absolutely gruelling. When I got to the top, I felt like Rocky after climbing the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art – and to think, he only had to climb 72 of them!
Before I attempted the climb, a gentleman at the bottom told me to climb up beside the stairs, on a little beaten path. I wanted bragging rights to say I climbed them so I ignored his advice, but I think it would have saved me a lot of pain had I just listened.
Have you ever visited the Cochin Lighthouse and the nearby "Cochin Ocean"? What other attractions should one visit while in the area? Let me know in the comments below.
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And, as always, a big thank you to my sweetheart Jessica Nuttall for proof reading a countless number of my articles. I couldn't do any of this without you. I love you.
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I haven't gone on a major trip since my journey to Riding Mountain National Park last autumn, so I booked off a week to travel out west. However, things didn't work out as I had planned, and my vacation turned more-or-less into a staycation.
Thankfully, it wasn't all for naught. I managed to get away one day, and I did a couple of little day trips throughout the week too. The day I got away I wanted to go as far north as possible, and I chose the Cochin Lighthouse.
The Cochin Lighthouse is just north of the Battlefords and it is the only lighthouse in the landlocked province of Saskatchewan. It sits on the top of Pirot Hill in the village of Cochin and shines a light out onto the nearby Jackfish Lake – or as locals call it, the "Cochin Ocean".
Just like the buffalo from thousands of years ago, you'll be hard-pressed to see Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site until you are on the doorstep. For you, its because the award-winning building is tucked under the cliff. For the buffalo, it was a sad fate, but that same cliff was what the First Nations people depended on for survival. A visit to Head Smashed In is another must-do on your #BucketListAB adventures.
In Blackfoot the centre is called "Estpah-skikikini-kots" but to make it easy we'll just say Head Smashed In. The history behind the name dates back thousands of years to when a young Blackfoot wanted to watch the buffalo plunge off the cliff. He hid below the cliff not thinking about what could be the outcome of his decision. He was found crushed under the pile of buffalo.
Remembrance Day is approaching, and with it comes a barrage of Facebook posts, the white poppy debate and Terry Kelly's "A Pittance of Time". But what do these posts, poppies and songs really mean?
For many, the war stories of selfless sacrifices and those of human triumph are just that; stories. If you haven't met a veteran, chances are you feel no difference between the Napoleonic Wars, the Boer Wars or the World Wars. These overseas wars are just like other war stories; ancient and taking place a world away. For many of today's youth, there is no difference between these events except for their chapter in a history textbook.
As a young adult, I too struggle with this. I know the events happened, and I can watch footage of them on television, but I have trouble relating to them. While ignorance to the reality of war is a blessing,
it makes it impossible to relate to stories of somebody younger than myself storming into Berlin, or of firing a flamethrower at Japanese soldiers, or even watching a friend die in the dirt of a battlefield. These are things I will never understand because I have never related to them.
