Prince Albert National Park, spread across the wooded heart of central Saskatchewan where the farmland gives way to forest, carries a government designation protecting roughly 3,800 square kilometres in which three landscapes meet: aspen parkland, dense boreal forest, and open fescue grassland. Waskesiu Lake, the largest lake in the park, is a favourite spot for boating and canoeing. The townsite of Waskesiu, the only community inside the park, draws summer visitors with its small shops, a log-cabin museum, a community theatre, and a Parks Canada nature centre. Adding to the appeal are the many private cottages scattered through the townsite and along the nearby shores.

Long before it was a park, the region around Waskesiu was crossed by fur traders, and in the eighteenth century a Hudson's Bay Company post stood not far to the south. It was there that some of the earliest traders in the district began exchanging goods with the Cree and other First Nations peoples. A government surveyor travelling through the area recorded its wealth of timber, fish, and game. As interest in the land grew, the commercial cutting of trees along the lakeshores was brought to a stop, and the forest was set aside for protection. Prince Albert officially became a national park in 1927. Many of its roads and early buildings were completed in the 1930s by crews hired through Canada's depression-relief programs.