Canada update #3

Yesterday we put the seat back up in the van and went with Gwen out to Elk Island National Park, a bit of the original prairie/woodland ecosystem that's been preserved. It's also home to two large herds of bison - plains bison and wood bison - but we didn't see much of them in the middle of the day. Abundant signs of them, in the form of tracks and enormous buffalo turds everywhere; but only a few bison from a long distance. Which, since we had the dogs, was just fine.


We had a picnic lunch:


Enrico had his picture taken near a horst of espens:

One the way back into town we stopped to visit a potter friend of Gwen's, and he gave us a tour of his studio and his clay-making setup. We had dinner at Gwen's, and it's been a lovely visit.

Today the plan is to visit Fort Edmonton, and then instead of staying another night in the hotel we're thinking of setting out north, either to the town of Athabasca - formerly Athabasca Landing, whence the steamboats set out for the Mackenzie District back in the day - or Whitecourt. Athabasca takes us a bit out of our way, Whitecourt is the direct route. Either way it's two full days of driving after that to get to the Northwest Territories, with a stop in Peace River. Not sure when the next post will be since we'll be on the road.

Photos on Flickr.