The Salt Streams of Wood Buffalo National Park

The streams you see here were actually very salty, so salty that just trying the water a little I had to spit it out and I had a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the hike. Obviously as a result different vegetation grows around them, and also obviously they are the last streams to freeze and the first streams to thaw.

Not far from then you do get normal vegetation.

But the dominant plants close to the streams are those red cacti-like plants which are full of salt water. Interestingly enough the level of salt they contain is lower than that of the stream where I tried both. So that if you were in desperate need of water you would be better off eating the plant than drinking water from the stream.