Today Shawn took me for a tour around his patch. He has family scattered all around the general vicinity and dropped in on a few of them during our rounds.
Grande Prairie is surrounded by lots of lakes and we stopped in on a couple of the nicer ones.
Saskatoon Lake
Monday morning, after a bit of a sleep in back in Grande Prairie, Shawn took me for a cook's tour of the general area. We set off west initially with the first stop, Saskatoon Lake. It wasn't a big lake but there was no shortage of bird life. These Franklin's Gulls lined the shore, picking off insects etc.
Before I came to North America, I thought there was only one type of Seagull. How wrong I was.
There were a bunch of water birds out on the lake as well.
Beaver Lodge (the town)
Grande Prairie is along the route the Americans take to Alaska. The residents of the area decided to build this tourist attraction, The Big Beaver. So apparently the Canadians do have a sense of humour.
Farms
Bison Farming
Many of the local farmers grow canola around Grande Prairie. It seems to be a good option with the short summers that far north. So many of the fields looked like this one. The yellow was so vibrant and was such a welcome change after the drab white and brown of winter.
Bison have proven to be very difficult to photograph in the wild on account of the fact that they've been hunted out of the wild and are now in isolated populations on fenced reserves. The odd thing is that the farmers in the north seem to farm them in favour of beef cattle. Since this is their natural habitat, they can withstand the harsh winter way better than the imports.
There is a downside to farming bison. They're a bit of a handful to move. They don't like people and they don't like being antagonized. They can run quite fast and if they don't like you, they give you a head butt that you aren't likely to recover from. This big bull didn't take kindly to me getting out of the car and taking photos of him. He was sitting chewing his cud when we arrived, but soon stirred up the dust, stood up and gave me a nasty look. I didn't stick around to test his patience. The rest of his herd in the adjoining paddock had a lot less attitude.
The Wild Rose.
The Alberta state flower is the Wild Rose. Being much smaller than your garden variety rose, they don't attract the same attention. Having said that, the can survive the brutal winters buried under snow.
Dunvegan Provincial Park
About 90 kms north of Grande Prairie is Dunvegan Provincial Park. It straddles Peace River. As you approach the park you greeted to this sight. It was a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge, but much smaller and painted more imaginatively. You will notice the hillsides are carpeted with yellow. Its wild mustard. Canada is such a beautiful place in summer.
A real Beaver Lodge
On the way back to Grande Prairie, we stopped at this huge beaver lodge with the hope of seeing one of the local residents. I saw a splash as we pulled up and decided to wait patiently until he surfaced again. We spotted him a couple of times, but it was 20 mins until he was on the surface long enough to take a photo. It's not a great shot, but it's proof that I saw one of these elusive creatures. He's right in the centre of picture if you can't find him.
It was pretty cool visiting the north for a few days. I was able to experience something completely different. Thanks to Shawn & his parents, Lois & Ed, for the opportunity. I hope to see you again soon folks.
