Manitoba Cuesta

Manitoba Cuesta, steep, east-facing escarpment in southeastern Manitoba, Canada. Rising 500–1,000 feet (150–300 metres) above the lowlands of southern Manitoba, the ridge extends for about 350 miles (560 km) from the Canada-U.S. boundary west of the Red River northwestward to the Carrot River, just inside Saskatchewan. From north to south several rivers, the Red Deer, Woody, Swan, Valley, and Assiniboine, have eroded it into what appears to be groups of hills (Pasquia, Porcupine, Duck, Riding, and Pembina), the tops of which are level with the prairies of Saskatchewan. During the Ice Age the escarpment formed the western shore of glacial Lake Agassiz; it is now a major recreational area embracing Riding Mountain National Park and several provincial parks and forests. Baldy Mountain (2,727 feet), in Duck Mountain Provincial Park, is the highest point in Manitoba.