Many would agree that there have been few thing to get excited about in the last year. But holy moly, with the days getting longer and the biting cold of February long behind us, we were starting to go stir crazy, so we hit the road on our first day trip adventure of 2021.
We packed a lunch, road snacks, water, hand sanitizer, masks and our dog Elly for what turned out to be a 13-hour round trip to Elk Island National Park. Elk Island is located 35 minutes east of Edmonton on the Yellowhead Highway (#16 Hwy) and for over 100 years has been a national wildlife preserve. It is home to both wood and plains bison as well as elk, beaver, black bears, moose, mule deer, and approximately 230 species of birds including trumpeter swans that have been re-introduced there.
Elk Island National Park is 10 km’s east/west and 20 km’s north/south and is the only fully enclosed national park–necessary for the conservation of the bison. When arriving to the park from the west, watch for the larger wood bison who are located on the south side of the Yellowhead Highway.
The park gates are located on the north side of the road. Shortly after passing through the gates, you will come to the Bison Loop Road. Here we were fortunate to see young males butting heads in one herd and further along the loop saw a group of 27 plains bison grazing in a large field. The park has made pullouts along the loop so vehicles can stop; it is recommended you stay in your vehicle to take pictures.
The bison in Elk Island have free range of the entire park, therefore we recommend you check out bison warning signs from the parks’ website. They have a fantastic example of how to know you are staying the recommended 100 metres away. They call it the ‘rule of thumb’. Look at a bison standing sideways in a field in front of you. Raise your fist in line with the bison and raise your thumb. If you can block the bison out of your vision with your thumb, you are ~100 metres, or at a safe distance. If you can still see any of the bison around your thumb, back up, you’re too close.
We continued north into the park to check out the Living Waters Boardwalk at Astotin Lake. In the summertime, this is a busy family recreation area. There are picnic tables, a children’s park, information centre, a beach, bathrooms and hiking trails. Our visit was in April, so the lake was frozen, and we were there early enough in the day that there were not a lot of people around. There was a method to our madness of leaving at 5:30 in the morning to avoid the people feeling exactly as we were.
It’s important to note that you are not guaranteed to see bison on your trip. We were super stoked that we did. We even went around for a second look on the loop road. This time we saw them scent rolling and running around which was pretty cool to see. A gorgeous park explored and another successful adventure!