Mar 13 2009
Elk
When the trains are gone the elk take over.
Jasper is in the middle of a national park and the animals are very tame. A park ranger told us she had bear in the house on numerous occasions, once even over the crib of her baby. She didn’t want to call this a close call though. But the elk apparently are far more dangerous. At least twice a year people are hospitalized because they got attacked by elk. Not only the males with their big antlers can do serious damage, the females like here on this photo can be very aggressive as well. I didn’t know that when I took this picture, we had freshly arrived, so I went quite close. Or more precisely they came close, as they were walking towards us. Curious and not at all wary. We were just humans and not wolves or bears. Nothing to fear here.
Anyway, I survided this close encounter without damage.
Monday, 16 March, 2009 @ 05:50
Cool! Can’t see a picture in this post (yet), though.
This makes me think of the ‘Hatchet’ books (https://tinyurl.com/dby3ug, ‘Overleven in de wildernis’ in Dutch). There also the elk are one of the worst threats.
Enjoy the rest of the trip!
Monday, 16 March, 2009 @ 09:06
Oops, we had to catch our train so i totally forgot to upload the photo. I since then have corrected that fact.
Monday, 23 March, 2009 @ 10:38
You just made my mind play a trick on me. I was in that park, years ago, during the summer, and saw a mother elk and her baby, lying down and chewing, in the campground. I had a mind’s eye image of myself and Esmé crouching down and whispering, watching them and not wanting to scare them. Then I realized this was many (15 or so) years before Es even came into my life. I do remember, however, seeing a mother and her little girl do what I just described. Funny, huh?
Saturday, 28 March, 2009 @ 20:05
I love Jasper, it is one of my happiest places to be. We have spent Christmas there for the past three years and it gets better and better. Hummm maybe I should rephrase that, Jasper is my favourite place to be in the winter, in the summer there are way too many tourists. And how lucky a train trip! Vancouver is another good place to be too. I hope you enjoyed your trip….*waving to Alison*