There are plenty of mountains, rivers, boreal forest and even some grand elevated plateaus with mountain sheep and caribou…. and the odd grizzly if you can spot one.

Here are just a few photos from the last few days…

So I walk out to the helicopter this morning.  I start to take off the covers and I walk around the side of the machine and a small wave of terror floods over me as I look up and see…

Yes, it’s a bison.

It was standing less than 50 feet from my machine by some trees…. and when I saw it, it was just looking at me.  I just stood there waiting for it to start charging me.

Now there are a number of bison in the Zama area of AB.  You see them from time to time when you’re flying… but you never expect to see one ‘in town’ and so close.

Clearly the bison thought less of the encounter than I did.  It just looked at me for a minute, turned and sauntered off… at which point I grabbed my camera and followed it to take the picture (from a considerable distance).

So, when’s the last time you saw a bison?