An island, indeed, Elk Island National Park began, in 1906, as a home for a dwindling local population of elk, a slice of wildness in a rapidly filling ocean of agriculture. The park remains such an sanctuary, but it also provides a haven for a bit of the lower boreal mixed forest and aspen parkland ecosystem. Farming, ranching, oil and gas exploration, and forestry have severely altered more than 75 per cent of Canada’s aspen parklands – a transition between the prairie and the boreal forest – making this one of the country’s most imperilled landscapes.

Elk Island is a lovely mosaic of open aspen parklands, denser conifer forests, grassy meadows, and wetlands. Famous for its wildlife – abundant and exceptionally visible – Elk Island has one of the greatest concentrations of large mammals in North America in a wild area, including sizable numbers of bison, moose, deer and, appropriately, elk.

The park is snow free May through October, and the wildlife viewing is exceptional throughout this fair-weather period.