N. W. T. Trip 2005 – Northern Alberta

We now left the North West Territories and headed south on the Mackenzie Highway in northern Alberta

The country side was very flat, agricultural land and we were very impressed with how attractive and well looked after the various farms were.

 

this sign was located in one of the ‘pull outs’ and explained about the origion of the highway.

We stopped that day at Twin Lakes Campground (I wonder how many ‘Twin Lakes’ there are….remember we stayed at ‘Twin Lakes’ in the Yukon during our June 2009 trip)

This was one of the ‘Twin’ Lakes….I’m not sure where the other one was.  We attempted to walk the trail that was supposed to be there, but this campground was not of the high standard we have since learned that most Alberta Campgrounds are….the supposed trail was virtually impassable…

Ernie was impressed with the ambition of the Beaver that was working on felling this large Poplar Tree!

and I was enchanted with these white Arum…at least I assume they are an Arum….they look like they could be related to our Skunk Cabbage…but there was no smell.

Next day we were back on the road, once more, heading south…

Pulled into a beautiful park, called ‘Peace Park’….there was a large ‘cultivated’ picnic area, playground etc., but also a campsite that appeared to be very ‘birdie’ – would have like to spent the night but Dave was having brake problems so we needed to continue on to the first big city….Grande Prairie, where we headed to Saskatoon Island Provincial Park.  Those of you who follow this blog will remember that we ended up at that park at the end of our Yukon trip last year and I commented on what a wonderful park it is….  2005 was our first visit and it took us that long to get back to it….we still haven’t made it back to the above ‘Peace Park.’

Here is a view of the lake….

There was actually a Trumpeter Swan family there that time, they hugged the far shore but we did get to see the young cygnets….in fact the only time to date that I have seen really young ones.

This was the first time we’d ever seen these Clay coloured Sparrows….which we now know are found all over the province!

my first Baltimore Oriole as well….

not to mention this Great Horned Owl…..in fact when we were sitting out that evening enjoying a bug free campfire….this, or another flew over and perched in a tree right beside our campsite…

look closely and you’ll see a Robin to the left, there were in fact a pair of Robins kicking up a fuss so I suspect there was a nest nearby.  I don’t know if Owl’s rob nests….but the Robins sure weren’t happy!

We had hit it right for the blooming of these gorgeous Prairie Lilies…

here is another look at this spectacular wildflower..

and these pink daisy…a type of Erigon I think.

and these white Canada Violets were growing everywhere in shady areas.

we must not forget the Chipmunks…busy munching away on the dandelion seeds, just like they were this past June when we were there.

before we leave, must show this other ‘lifer’ a Yellow bellied Sapsucker – again,the first I’d seen….

and this baby Bunny that had somehow fallen into the rather deep fire pit and couldn’t get out.  Ernie rescued him, but not until he’d come and got me to take a picture….I don’t know if it was a Snowshoe Hare as we’d seen a lot of them there….or if it might have been a Cottontail….it sure was cute! and not terribly happy to be rescued…we just hoped that it would be able to find the rest of it’s family….

 

N.W.T. Trip 2005 – back to the 60th parallel

The morning we were to leave Fort Smith and start the homeward stretch of our trip – the sun finally shone!

this scene was taken just a little way out of town…

another Buffalo or Bison…..just because…

another look at one of those Raven nests…this one with at least a couple of youngsters in it…

That’s either mom or dad on the ground….

and back to the Mackenzie Highway, this time headed south.

a stop to take a look at Louise Falls….

and an even closer look…

and back to the 60th parallel….a little different than where we had crossed from B.C.!

This picture shows just part of the visitors center…

Reluctant to leave the Territories just yet, we decided to spent the night at the campground that adjoins the visitor center….

so here is our final ‘territories’ campfire (in fact I think our ‘only’ territories campfire!

This Hermit Thrush had been running around at the edge of the campsite…

I was interested to find this ‘white’ Wild Rose, growing along side a number of normal….

pink Wild Rose….after all Alberta was just a few feet away and Alberta is ‘Wild Rose Country’.

N.W.T. Trip 2005 – Salt Plains

In reality it is now 2010….we took a quick and snowy trip up to Okanagan Falls….but I’m now back and did a quick look see at the pictures so I’d remember where I was before the break….the last posting I had done before we left and posted when we got back…..

So back to the past….waking up in Fort Smith….this day we left the RV’s in the campground and drove back to the turn off to the Salt Plains. 

part way down the narrow gravel road, this mother Ruffed Grouse crossed in front of us with her little herd of chicks…..by the time we got stopped and the camera ready, the chicks were well hidden in the bush…

13 km from the turn off we came to the Salt Plains interpretive center

I must say that after the narrow winding gravel road it came as quit a shock to see this elaborate viewing area and the fancy washroom building….which I didn’t get a picture of.  The Salt Plains, were I think, the most impressive item we saw on this trip….well maybe apart from the Pelicans on the Slave River!  The following series is an attempt to show the vast scope of these plains….

The last in this series being a telephoto view to attempt to give a bit more detail.  You’ll notice that these pictures have all been taken from a fairly high elevation….however there were a series of stairs and platforms leading down to the plains themselves….and an invitation to ‘go for a walk’…..so we did…

The weather was still damp and showery….that is Dave ahead of me as we descended the long flights of stairs….and those are mosquitoes on his vest…..we were all covered with them.

now here we are at ‘ground’ level.  Normally the plains are bone dry with a coating of salt on the surface, and you can walk forever on them, but due to the wet weather, the surface was sticky, gumbo like mud and it wasn’t possible to walk anywhere…

This was one of the signs located down on the plains themselves….

There were Buffalo tracks….

and Crane tracks….the crane tracks more recent since the mud was disturbed, while the Buffalo must have been there when it was a bit firmer….it ‘looks’ dry in this picture….but it wasn’t.  Since we couldn’t wander very far, there was nothing to do but head back up….

back at the top, when we stopped to catch our breath and looked back…there was this herd of Buffalo out on the plains….one of those ‘magical’ moments as we watched them.

Another ‘magical’ moment occurred later when we were back at the campsite having a late lunch….

when this Red Fox walked down the road and then proceeded to poke about our campsite.  I guess if you live in the north, Fox are a common occurrence…but not for people like us…..

N.W.T. Trip – 2005 – Wood Buffalo Nat. Park

Leaving Hay River, we turned onto Highway 5, traveled past the junction of highway 6 which goes to Fort Resolution (left for another time), towards the entrance of Wood Buffalo National Park, approximately 90 km from Hay River.  This is a huge national park…totalling 44,800 Sq. kilometres, about 1/4 of which are in the N.W.T., with the remainder in Northern Alberta.

Just after entering the park, we found a large rest area and signage regarding sinkholes, of which, there are apparently quite a few in this type of topography…

and here is the sinkhole….

back on the road…and you’ll notice it is now gravel, or actually ‘mud’ as it had been raining again…what else do you expect to see in ‘Wood Buffalo’ National Park…but ‘Wood Buffalo’ and boy did we ever see them…not sure how many times we had to slow to a crawl or even stop as they meandered all over the road.  Notice something else in this picture?  Electrical Pylons!  Yep! You would almost think we were back in civilization.

there was a good crop of young calves here as well.  When we were in Fort Smith and went to the visitors center….the attendant said that “if we were lucky” we might see a Buffalo on the road….we informed her that we had been dodging them the whole way!

and those hydro pylons….well every second or third one of them contained a Raven’s nest…..

there was even a sign about them…

Wood Buffalo National Park contains the nesting site of the world’s only migratory population of Whooping Cranes.  The public isn’t allowed any where near where this actually happens….the following signage best explains…

Hopefully, if you click on this closer shot you will be able to read it (although I’ve noticed that the click on to enlarge doesn’t work as well when you use ‘live writer’

I know I took photos of the general wetlands habitat that was at this location….but they weren’t on the two CD’s and I can’t find them in my computer….I guess if I dug back far enough I could find them…suffice it to say that it was a wetland area, typical of the same sort of habitat used by the Whooping Cranes.

As it was raining at the time, we didn’t take the turn off to the Salt Plains but headed directly to the town of Fort Smith….as it turned out, a good choice as I definitely would not recommend towing anything on the access road to the Salt Plains!

The big attraction, at least for birders, at Fort Smith are the American White Pelicans that nest, by the hundreds, on the Slave River. 

Before searching for Pelicans we headed to Queen Elizabeth Park Campground….a  campground, close to what proved to be a very nice little town and that over looked the Slave River.

Here is the view of the Slave River from the campground….they are hard to see but those are the ‘Rapid’s of the Drowned’ out there…a charming name!

here is a look at the campground…

and there are Pelicans…all those white things are Pelicans…

Pelicans close by…

Pelican’s swimming upstream…

and Pelican’s feeding.  We’ve seen Pelican’s on lakes all over Alberta, we’ve seen them in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and there are even breeding colonies on lakes in the Chilcotin area of British Columbia….Fort Smith is the only location where they are known to breed on a river…and it is a very large, very turbulent river.

I might add that the whole time we were hiking through, not very well marked trails, finding the Pelicans, it continued to rain….so we’ll leave off for now as we’ll be spending another day at Fort Smith….