Day Hike in Elk Island National Park

Day Hike in Elk Island National Park

I have a summer assignment filling in for 4 weeks for a Salesian pastor who's on vacation.  I'm serving at St. Edmund Parish in Edmonton, Alberta, and residing with 3 confreres in our SDB residence (all the way across town).  The SDBs have a day off from parish ministry on Mondays.  When everyone’s around, it serves as a day for community purposes like meetings, recollection, or recreation.

I drove 30 miles east to Elk Island National Park, warmly recommended by several St. Edmund parishioners.  There were a lot of hiking possibilities.  I selected the Moss Lake Trail, which includes 2 loops, A and B.  The B was labeled “difficult,” in contrast to the “moderate” A.  So of course I did B. 

As a Harriman State Park veteran, the only thing I found "difficult" about it was its length, 11.6 km; there were a few gentle ups and downs, but it was mostly level.  I did have to add about 2.5 km of the A section to get to and from B.  That total of about 14 km = about 9 miles.  It took me 4 hours (about 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.), including lunch breaks and photo stops.

If you look carefully, you'll see 2 bison across the pond.

It was sunny and warm—upper 70s.  That was good for photography, and I took 37 pix on the trail (and 1 with my phone in the visitors center, which insists on putting itself in the chronological middle of the photos):  https://link.shutterfly.com/CekPLZGvXAb).

Along the trail there were loads of horse droppings, some from another large mammal (moose? elk?), a lot of owl scat, and some poop that belonged perhaps to a dog or else to something like that.  There were horse hoof prints, deer prints, elk (?) prints, and some dog prints.

Along the long B section of trail, I saw only one human, a fair member of the fair sex, with her 2 friendly dogs.  Returning to the parking lot on the A section, I met about a dozen people, mostly heading into the trail.

Beaver lodge in the center.

There weren’t a lot of flowers along the trail, but such as they were I shot pictures of.  There were also 3 tiny raspberries—1 so tiny I didn’t pick it and pop it into my mouth.

As for fauna, I saw Canada geese, a lot of ducks, 2 trumpeter swans in flight, a red squirrel, a small gray squirrel, a rabbit, at least 3 varieties of butterflies, dragonflies, a honeybee, a good number of birds, and 2 bison.  Later, on the road, there was another bison right in a parking lot; he got a good bit of attention (from the safety of vehicles).

All photos:  https://link.shutterfly.com/CekPLZGvXAb