For the long weekend and upcoming week in Hay River, Danielle and I have something new and exciting: a vehicle! Nicknamed “Jetboat car” (for obvious reasons), our rental has led us on a couple of adventures already.
Saturday morning we shipped out early to Twin Falls Gorge Territorial Park. A trail runs along 
the Hay River from Alexandra Falls to Louise Falls. At the falls themselves we could get right up to the water, close enough to dip a foot in. Most of the rest of the way, the river had cut a fairly sizeable gorge. The trail alternated look-out points with sections labeled “Danger stay back from edge” (which I did. I occasionally follow instructions). Alexandra Falls is the tallest, while Louise is a more odd shape. The park was mostly empty, which made for a nice hike, although we did meet a couple of people at the edge of Louise Falls. It seems somehow appropriate that, just like half of the teachers we’ve met, they were also from Nova Scotia.
Saturday night I stayed up to try and see the Aurora Borealis. When the sky didn’t get any darker between 12 and 2:30, and the sun was rising by 3am, I figured it wasn’t going to happen. Gives me hope for August, but kind of put a damper on Sunday.
Monday we hea
ded out to Wood Buffalo National Park, which apparently is bigger than Switzerland. The main park entrance, including most of the info and walking trails, are actually near Fort Smith, which would have added an extra hour’s drive to the commute. We did see a couple of neat sights in the park though, including the Karstland sinkhole. The hiking trail we found took us through an area that had been burned out probably not more than five-ten years ago, and made for an interesting contrast as the young growth was vibrantly green, but all the larger trees were dead.
AND, we saw some buffalo. Lots of buffalo. The babies were out, skipping around. We obeyed the sign at the park entrance and stayed in our car, but they didn’t seem particularly interested in us anyway
Last but not least, Hay River is right near the shores of the Great Slave Lake, so of course there had to be time for a walk on the beach. :)
Your pictures are amazing! And everything looks so dramatic. I love your posts. :) And thank you for occasionally following safety signage. :P
ReplyDeleteWhat's the Karstland sinkhole (I know I can google it, but I'd like to hear it from you!)? Keep having awesome adventures!!