Bison galore!

Yesterday, Garrett and I drove east of the city to Elk Island National Park. It was great to get outside the city to enjoy the great weather. At a half hour drive outside the city, Elk Island boasts a healthy population of beavers, elk, moose and BISON! There were very very many bison near the park road when we got there and I got a little snap happy. Look, baby bison!! Bison on the road! We had to wait awhile for this big gal to cross the road.And for these bison to cross as well.Then we saw this big daddy. Check out the birds on his back, catching a ride. It's just like on 'The Lion King'.
Next, we walked through the park on 'Beaver Pond Trail'. I wore my new hiking boots!
Sure, I may LOOK happy, but those stupid boots shredded my heels, even with my fancy hiking socks. I think the problem is that the hiking socks are a bit too big for me (small feet! socks are always too big for me) so they could slide around on my foot and create friction.

Anyway, onto our hike: if I could have taken a picture of the mosquitos and horseflies buzzing around us I would have. We soaked ourselves in bug repellent and kept moving continuously. It made it difficult to get some of the pictures below, but I managed.

In the middle of this picture, you can see a green mound in the middle of the lake. This beaver dam in the pond is that which the trail is named after. This beaver dam was awfully far away and we had no chance to even see a beaver. Oh well.
You can also see the swampy marshy conditions in which the millions of mosquitos came to existence.

Here's Garrett on the trail.
A froggie! We saw quite a few of these little dudes, actually. And for some bizarre reason that I fail to understand, they were all crossing the trail from the right to left. Every single one. Some froggie migration?This is just a beautiful flower along the trial that I wanted to take a picture of.Now, I was very excited by the number of butterflies on the trail. There were all sorts - all beautiful. Large, brightly coloured, Monarchs and more. However, try as I might, I could not get a picture of anything except the little blue one below. Apparently I 'thump along too hard' when I'm chasing the butterflies to take a picture.Once done our hike, we went to the picnic area to enjoy the lunch that we packed. However, the wildlife sightings did not stop here. Note the beetle below, stuck on my shirt.
A flock of pelicans, flying about.This silly little bird made her nest on the meridian in the parking lot. You could see her eggs if you got close enough to make her angry and stand up. I felt bad doing this to her, just for the sake of my photo, so what you see if what I got.After the park, we went out to Garrett's grandparent's house and had a nice visit plus some yummy perogies and sausage. So good.

I'm including the picture below to try and give those non-prairie dwellers a feel for the prairies. We are about 30km away from Edmonton in the picture, yet you can see the downtown core quite distinctly. As well, those buildings are the only tall thing around!