Showing posts with label Prince Albert National Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prince Albert National Park. Show all posts

Friday, July 31, 2009

Travel Log - Prince Albert National Park

On to Prince Albert National Park - very nice place. We took "scenic" 263 both into and out of the park. Just before entering the park we stopped at a Lion's Club park on one of the lakes. I noticed a bird diving around the dock - upon further study it was a red necked grebe - a new life bird for me!!!!! We had our picnic lunch in another picnic area right before entering the park. We got a yearly Canadian National Parks Pass and printed literature about the park. We took all the driving tours in the park. We came in on Scenic Drive #263. Then we took the Narrows Drive. Paignton Beach was set up really nicely - firewood for the picnic areas, picnic tables and benches to enjoy the view. Historic as well with old fireplaces and a camp kitchen built by relief workers in the 1930's. The end of the "Narrows Drive is a great campground. There is a boat trip you can take up to the narrows - departs 3 times a day and they also offer a sunset cruise. You can also rent boats, canoes, and kayaks - would be something fun to do to go up the Narrows area of Lake Waskesiu.

We drove through the town Waskesiu - nice, small inviting town with guest services - restaurants, hotels, gift shops, etc. It would be a fun place to stay if you were going to get to spend more time here. We were lucky to see a fox hunting and running the road near Waskesiu. Then we took the Hanging Heat Lakes/Kingsmere Drive. At the top was another place to launch boats or canoes - pretty, quiet, it would be a fun canoe or kayak area. While shooting this image of this peaceful spot, I was being dive bombed by huge dragonflies. Their wings were buzzing right round my ears. It took me a few minutes to figure out why the dragonflies seemed to be attacking me - they were after the swarms of mosquitoes that were feasting on me! I don't tend to notice mosquitoes nearly as much as Henry. I was concentrating on my photography and the dragonflies were more annoying than the biting mosquitoes . . .



We didn't see the nesting pelicans but there are supposed to be a group of pelicans that nest here each year.

I shot this image on our way back to Prince Albert on scenic 263.



On the way back to the town, Prince Albert - we stopped at some of the marshy ponds - saw another pair of red necked grebes - one that I think might have been a chick. Saw another unknown duck with chicks and a belted kingfisher. We spent the night at the Comfort Inn so we could have internet. Had dinner at Humpty's - Henry had cod and I had upside down Shepherd's Pie. After two nights with no internet, we finished our evening catching up on our internet stuff.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Prince Albert National Park - Saskatchewan



We spent today at Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan. Beautiful forested park with many lakes.

This fox was the highlight of the day. We watched him jump along the side of the highway to catch his dinner. He crossed over and ran along the highway for some distance. We would get ahead of him and I would try to photograph him as he ran towards us. He was always in motion, so out of a group of shots, this one is the best. I love getting to see foxes!