Elk Island National Park, National park and dark sky preserve in Alberta, Canada
Elk Island National Park is a protected area and international dark-sky preserve in eastern Alberta that encompasses gentle hills, lakes, and sweeping grasslands. The terrain combines aspen and birch woodland with wetlands and quiet bodies of water.
The reserve was created in 1913 to protect the last bison herds in North America after the animals had nearly vanished by the late nineteenth century. Over the following decades, the site became a key center for reintroducing plains and wood bison to other regions.
The name derives from the wapiti or elk that roamed this region until the early twentieth century. Visitors gather along roads in the early morning to watch bison herds moving across open meadows at dawn.
The reserve lies roughly half an hour by car east of Edmonton and remains open throughout the year. Most trails are flat and well marked, while some paths are cleared in winter for snowshoeing or cross-country skiing.
Elk Island holds both the largest and smallest land mammals in North America: the wood bison and the pygmy shrew. It also serves as a seed herd, sending surplus bison to American Prairie in Montana, Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan, and, in 2006, 30 wood bison to Yakutia in Russia.
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