I had an extended trip out west, a colleague and I were sent out to our two sites that were impacted by the forest fires this summer. It was a 10 day trip that took us to Pinehouse Lake, SK and Fort Smith, NT. We flew into Edmonton, rented a truck and drove to Beauval, SK. This was the sunrise on Lac La Plonge.

The accommodations were a little sparse, there was no internet or television for a few days.

On our third day we drove to La Ronge to catch a charter flight to do an aerial assessment of our site. The plane was a Cessna 185 float plane, it was the first time I have taken off and landed on water.

The road and our site at the end of it. The black and brown areas are all fire damaged. Even though the plane ride was a little rough, it was an awesome opportunity.

On the Friday we headed back to Edmonton to catch our flight to Fort Smith. It was about 6:30 when we came across a herd of cows blocking the road. Eventually with a little honking and inching forward, they moved out of the way.

We only had a few days in Fort Smith. We saw this small group of bison on the way back to town on the Saturday.

There were three adults and a couple of younger ones.

What my telephoto lens lets me see. I was in the drivers seat and they were on the passenger side of the highway. I had the back window down and pointing my lens towards them.

Sunday was an off day for us, so we headed down to Mountain Rapids to see if we could see the nesting Pelicans. They were all on islands pretty far away.

The scenery on the Slave River is spectacular.

The Mountain Rapids.

We were able to watch the end of the Blue Jays/Yankee game when we got back to town. After the game we headed to Grosbeak Lake.

Some bison footprints in the mud.

Even though it looks like two rocks it is just one rock that has eroded over the years by the salt.

We set our alarms for the second last night to see if we could see the Aurora Borealis. We drove down to the river around 12:30am.

Those are lights from another vehicle that pulled up while we were there.

It was kind of odd, as the colours were not as vibrant as they appear in the photos. We could see some of the green, but not much of the purple.

Note the Big Dipper in the top left of this photo.

Most of these photos were taken at a 30 second exposure on a Gorillapod on the roof of the truck.

On the Monday we had another charter booked with Northwestern Air Lease. This time our plane had wheels. It was a Cessna 206, a little bigger than the previous one. As the pilot said, this was more like the station wagon of Cessna’s.

The scenery below was a little more interesting.

Some of the burn area, that is the main highway that goes between Fort Smith and Hay River.

The Slave River.

Our last night in Fort Smith we headed down to the Rapids of the Drowned. They are right in town and a short hike down to the river from town. The Pelicans were still far away, not as close as they were in May when I saw them.

A final sunset over the Slave River.

Day 10 and we had an early flight from Fort Smith to Edmonton via a stop in Hay River. On the flight to Hay River there were three of us on the British Aerospace Jetstream 31 that can hold 19 passengers.

After we landed in Hay River to drop off one pax, the pilot said we were it to Edmonton. So my colleague and I had a private charter from Hay River to Edmonton.