The Duck Mountains are a rise of forested (formerly glaciated) land between the Saskatchewan prairie to the west and the Manitoba lowlands to the east.

[4] The vertical relief of the mountains is the result of erosion of the Cretaceous shale by the ancestral (pre Ice Age) Red River to the east, and by the ancestral Assiniboine River to the west, and so the Duck Mountain's apparent height is the result of a lowering of the surrounding prairie, rather than any orogen.

The flatter land areas surrounding the forest have almost entirely been converted to cereal-grain farmland, making the forest (and the contiguous Saskatchewan Duck Mountain Provincial Park) an environmental refuge for such large animals as elk, moose, black bear, lynx, bobcat, and timber wolf.

Other animals, such as the white-tailed deer and coyote, are found in abundance in the park, but roam more freely into the surrounding agricultural lands and are thus less reliant on it.

These facilities may include boat launches, campgrounds, rental cottages, and privately owned vacation homes.