2013/06 NWT trip - Elk Island |
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We had a long, wet and windy drive through a mix of forest, swamp, farms, and the occasional small village. We saw some deer and a coyote.
The weather changed for the better as we arrived at Elk Island national park, just to the east of Edmonton. We’d been worried that the park might be full so close to the Canada Day long weekend, but it was almost empty. Of course, the high cost of admission and camping at national parks has a lot do with this!
It’s a landscape of lakes and forests and swamps with a population of bison, moose, and elk. The entire park is fenced so we are all inside the same zoo with just one pen. Some areas can be driven around but most have to hiked to, usually though mud. We drove around the bison loop, lots to see with dozens sprawled across the meadows, so we just sat and watched. Later, we walked out to the Beaver Pond but the beavers were elsewhere, just the bugs at home.
Thursday June 27th
It was a very wet night with thunder and lightning but a beautiful breezy bug-free morning. We took a walk along Astotin Lake, pretty with 
islands. The park had lots of parking and picnic facilities and looked like it expected thousands to descend on its sandy beaches. Only they hadn’t arrived yet.
A floating boardwalk took us past coots and mallards and red-wing blackbirds. Then we accidentally cornered a red squirrel at a boardwalk dead end. It promptly climbed to the end of the fence and jumped into the water. It swam halfway across the channel, turned to check if we were still there, and went back to swimming. Even odder, it was swimming towards a musk rat sitting at the water’s edge. Squirrel and rat met in a brief tussle and then both disappeared.
We took one more look at the bison, or we tried to. We thought we could see some heads among the trees, but the meadows were empty. Perhaps the ranger had reminded them that they were wood bison, not their plains relatives.