We left Hinton on Wednesday and started heading to Edmonton. We stayed at Elk Island NP which is about 30 miles east of Edmonton. Sorry no pictures of this area.
Edmonton itself is fair size city noted for having one of the largest indoor malls in North America. The weather was on the dismal side and we decided to check out the mall. Turned out to be longer drive than expected through some heavy traffic. Plus the TomTom GPS (we have it programmed with the voice of Pres George W. Bush) failed us and we missed the turn off. George did redeem himself and we did eventually find it. What can one say - it's a mall and much like any other mall except for the giant ice rink, water park and rides. Malls are not our cup of tea but if shopping is yours, then check it out.
I have to say Elk Island NP was bit of a disappointment. It is more like a large urban nature preserve then what one expects of a national park. It was quite expensive to camp inside the park. They charge a per person per day fee on top of the camping site fee which all totaled came to $40 a day. The sites did not have any water, electric or sewer and the park overall looked a bit run down. Plus they charged another $8 a day if you want to have campfire. It looked like it might be weekend hangout place for Edmonton youth crowd. We did see some buffalo but nothing like what you see at Yellowstone NP or Custer State park in the Mt Rushmore area. Never did see any elks or beavers. Lesson learned -we will stay away from the Canadian NPs for camping. Provincial parks seem to have larger sights and seem to be more maintained. So we decided to leave a day early for Saskatoon. JLS
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