We travelled out to Edmonton this Christmas holidays for the snow, except there wasn't any! We had bought snowshoes as presents for each other and had hoped to go out to Elk Island National Park to try them out. Well we did go to the park, and made this picture but as you can see we didn't do any snowshoeing. This female is eyeing the photographer carefully, most of the herd moved out of our 300mm lens' range on hearing our approach.
The park is small as Canadian National Parks go, but there are several trails that in the winter can (allegedly) be used for cross-country skiing. There are many lakes suitable for kayaking and probably fishing in the summer. To the south of the park is a provincial park that also has much of the same facilities.
While we were out there, saw porcupine up close for the first time. Unfortunately it was Weston, our dog, that found it first. The damage was five spines in the lower jaw. Weston thought we were extremely unfair to pull him away from his find as he didn't seem to even notice the spines. Later he reinforced his dislike of the vet. The spines stick fast and you really need a tool like pliars to remove them even if they are in only a little way.