Moose

My relatives were happy that I had seen a bison, so we were doubly surprised to have some elk pass in front of us on the road (no photo). I was quite content with the natural beauty of the place, the animals were a bonus. I said that about the only thing I still really wanted to see, but certainly didn't expect to, was a Moose. My uncle said, 'look up ahead,' at that point. Guess what we saw in the fading light! She was a cow, and casually strolled across the road and up the rise to graze on some bark she took a fancy to. At her size, she wasn't too concerned about us. Absolutely fantastic!

Big Bison

We hadn't seen any of the famed Bison by the time we had passed right through the park and the sun was about to set. So we drove up the Yellowhead Hwy a short while to see the Ukranian Village that exists there and then returned to through the park.

It wasn't long and we saw these buggers, part of a larger group grazing near the roadside on the edge of the woods. I believe they are 'Wood Bison', as opposed to the 'Plains Bison' who occupy another area of the Park. They are big.

Island and Lake

Apart from the angle, this is close to what it looked like when we arrived at the central lake on the upland plateau. We passed a squirrel or two on the way (no photo) and numerous small bodies of water in various states of frozenness. Almost all of these smaller meres had a resident Beaver dam in their centre, a pile of logs and sticks built up out of the water, one per mere. Methinks Beavers aren't friendly neighbors.

The Island seen here is one of a couple in the centre of the large lake. There are camp grounds and a golf course further around and out of sight. Although the thermometer wasn't too cold, the wind made it as cold as it looks to take this shot. There were small fish shoaling around the edge of the ice.

Elk Island National Park

5km off the highway we entered the National Park. We had a park pass that allowed free entry, but there was no one collecting so not needed. Within a couple weeks the park will be blooming and start to crowd with campers and day trippers from Edmonton but we had it almost entirely to ourselves.

Quite large, it is on an upland and is site of forest and open woodland, with large areas of both seasonal and permanent water. It has a 'light pollution protection zone' around it and thus is reasonably safe from encroachments.