1025 August 28, 2023 Elk Island National Park

Another walk on the city streets surrounding the hotel. 

Yesterday at the Real Canadian Superstore, we got some picnic food.  We packed that today and set out to explore Elk Island National Park.  We had to travel about 30 miles east on Route 16.  This is a park dedicated to bison conservation.  In the early 1900’s almost all of the bison had been extinguished from North America.  The Canadian government shipped a herd of more than 400 bison to Elk Island. 

We could see a herd of wood bison from the highway.  The wood bison are fenced in the southern portion of the park.  Plains bison live in the northern part. The fence looks sturdy! This is the only completely fenced national park in Canada.

We went into the Wahkotowin Visitor Information Center where we got a map and some hiking suggestions.

We traveled along Elk Island Parkway, stopping at all of the viewpoints. 

We parked at the Astotin Lake Recreation Area and walked the Living Waters Boardwalk Trail. 

There are beaver lodges in every lake and pond.

Recent beaver activity.

These caterpillars were everywhere.

Some geese and ducks.

Flora.

We had our lunch and then took the bikes off the Jeep to ride the Shoreline Trail.

We stopped to sit awhile at Beaver Bay.

It was here by the water that we realized how badly we needed to be out of the hotel, out of the city, and OUTSIDE!!!  It was a restorative balm to sit in the warm sunshine on this beautiful day.  The water was calm and the scenery was lovely.

The trail was somewhat hilly but I only had to get off and push a couple of times!  It was absolutely good work!

There was very fresh evidence of bison activity on and along the trail but we did not see any animals.

We got back into the Jeep and did the rest of the park road.  We decided to take some back roads back to Edmonton.  Tim turned onto a gravel road that ran along the border of the park.  Here we saw PAPA bison.  This guy was huge!

We rode through farmland on country roads.

Pumpjack…this is still oil country. Edmonton has a huge oil refinery on the east side of town.

What a great day we had.  It was nice to put our worries away and just enjoy the ride!

The hotel has a great Indian restaurant called Monsoon. The reviews are good and we got a recommendation from the staff to give it a try. We wanted to but we were a little leery. We don’t have much experience with Indian food and we didn’t know what we might order. I was talking with David this afternoon and he was all about it! He said he would do whatever he could “to promote us trying something new in the big city.” Tim sent David pictures of the menu and he made some suggestions.

We enjoyed butter chicken, lamb biryani, and garlic naan. It was all flavorful and delicious. We enjoyed this experiment and we will continue to look for adventure and new experiences wherever we go!