Elk Island National Park

On Friday July 24th Margarit and I decided we would make a short term escape from the woes of dealing with our flooded basement.  It has been over a month since the water first began to flood our basement as a result of all the heavy rain in central Alberta.  A month later and we have most of our stuff cleared out of the basement, and demolition underway, but not much else.  We still have no answers from our insurance adjuster or the contractor.

So we decided to take a break and escape out of the city for a couple of hours.  We made a quick lunch stop at the Burger Baron, and then headed east.  The air was heavy with smoke from forest fires up in the Northwest Territories.  It was difficult to imagine anything burning as everywhere we looked there was mud and standing water.  But the severe rains were actually somewhat limited to a relatively small area in central Alberta.  Park entry is again free this summer, so the annual pass that I paid full price for in the spring of 2025 remains irrelevant.  I understand that its validity will be extended until at least the end of 2026.

The light had a rather orange pall to it as a result of all the smoke in the air.  The sky was smokey gray and like a light blanket over everything.  We saw a number of bison along the side of the road and took a couple of snapshots.  There was evidence that there had been a fairly significant tent caterpillar infestation earlier in the summer as many of the aspens trees were stripped partly bare.  We stopped at the Hayburger trail head and every nook and cranny on the interpretive sign had a cocoon spun into it.  

It was very hot, with the temperature peaking at about 30C.  We had Hank along with us, and despite his recent haircut, he doesn't handle heat very well.  When we went for a short walk Hank managed to investigate the edge of a beaver pond, only to find out that it was very deep and he was quickly swimming.  We saw a few wildflowers and some beaked hazelnut bushes along the trail.  Later we headed out of the park and did some exploring to the northeast.  

By late afternoon we made our way back to the city and crossed through the park once again.  I stopped to photograph a grove of dead birch trunks that had caught my eye on the way through earlier.  It was a relaxing day and a nice escape from everything that has been going on recently.