I don’t have a whole lot to say about Elk Island National Park after only spending half a day there on a trip to Edmonton. I did feel like I saw a lot of what this park had to offer and what made it special, however. Not to say it’s lacking in any sort of way.
I arrived in the afternoon, intending on staying until sunset to hopefully get a good landscape photo. Given the now cold and snowy climate of the area, it was not very busy, just the way I like it. I also liked how for a change, Elk Island is truly a park that can be thoroughly explored and experienced in the car. Again, deep snows and frigid temperatures made getting out for a long hike seem not so appealing. What many come here for is to see the wild buffalo, and I was not very different from the rest.
Conveniently, many of the buffalo herds can be seen from the side of the road, where there is lots of wide open prairie and thus, lots of grass for them to graze on. From a fairly great distance, we saw what I’d consider a herd, but for the most part, the closest and most visible buffalo were solitary males. This isn’t really a complaint. I was honestly ecstatic to see even one of these large, majestic creatures. I’ve learned a lot about buffalo from Steve Rinella’s excellent book “American Bison”. This book, which I can’t recommend enough for nature lovers alike, really put into perspective the ongoing legacy of these animals and built a grand mythos around them for me, not having seen one before at the time of reading.
Elk Island is built mainly of lake, forested, and of course, grassland biomes, and I got to experience each on my short visit. To achieve this, we simply had to drive up the Elk Island Parkway going up and down the center of the park. Ending up at the relatively large Astotin Lake, we decided to get out and stretch our legs. A short walk on the “Living Waters Boardwalk” was perfect to get a sense of the area and breathe in the incredibly fresh air.
On our way back from the lake we had our first close encounter with a buffalo on the side of the road. Coming from Ontario, I am used to seeing “moose jams” but this was my first “buffalo jam”, me being one of several cars parked on the side of the road to view this animal simply going about his day. I’m not a fan of doing something like that as it causes traffic, but also, how could I not stop for my first up-close experience with a buffalo?
It gets dark early at this time of the year in northern Alberta, and by 3:30 p.m., we had to start heading back to our hotel in town. On the way, we stopped at Mud Lake to get a nice shot of the sunset. A short trek through the snow to the lake was all we had to do to get front-row seats to what was turning out to be a magnificent show of colour in the sky. My brother and I decided to take what appeared to be a well-used path towards the lake, my wife staying in the car. As we were walking we started to notice something though…exactly zero of the footprints on the path were human. From the looks of it, primarily buffalo and wolves were taking the same trail before us, and lots of them. We noticed some buffalo hanging out beside the lake and decided not to get too close, opting to set the tripod and camera on a hill some distance away instead.
The pure solace of this spot was what I came to national parks for. Cold be damned, I could’ve sat there for hours in this wild and peaceful setting. A number of howls from wolves, no further than 300-400 meters away was the signal that we should probably head back to the car and call it a night.
One last thing to add about Elk Island is how great the visitor center is. Part museum with knowledgeable staff and part merch store, this spacious building has all you need from a visitor center. It has got the best outdoor park bathrooms I’ve ever seen too, with both me and my brother remarking how clean and comfortable they were. Ten out of ten for the toilets at Elk Island National Park.
Seriously though, it is not the most awe-inspiring park that I’ve been to, but I have no real complaints. Elk Island can offer a really strong dose of pristine nature and seems to have many great accommodations for its visitors. As usual, I will have to come back and explore a little deeper.
