Crowfoot Ferry

 Crowfoot Ferry

For  a number of years I have been considering a road trip that would include crossings of all the Alberta River Ferries. These Ferries exist as an alternate to bridges although most have a nearby bridge now to make them obselete. Possibly another example of vote purchasing in the past that cannot be reversed.... like our fake health care system, among others. I figured the summer solstice might assist in visiting the 6 ferries that still operate on Alberta rivers as its a long drive.

Crowfoot Ferry on Range Road 201

Whitepost Lane to Crowfoot Ferry

 Departed White Post Lane about 9:00 on June 21, heading towards the first ferry on list, Crowfoot, that crosses the Bow River and is appropriately located, near Crowfoot Alberta.

This journey is about 140kms (85 miles) across dryland and irrigated farming to the edge of the southern Alberta desert. 

Arrowwood Grain Elevator

The route passes many delelict buildings from a bygone era, modern Granaries, iconic aged Grain Elevators all while traversing under the magnificent Southern Alberta Big Sky Cloud Museum. 

Granaries Farm, Agriculture version of Oil Tank Farm

Someday gonna fix this old barn

Junction AB24 and AB547

Past Arrowood, the secondary highways gave way to range and township roads and the white lines turned to gravel and mud. The previous days 3/4"of rain made for slick conditions the last 40kms of roads with very little gravel.  

Prickley Pear Cactus

Maybe there is a god?

Further along at the edge of the desert, very close to the Crowfoot Ferry 'terminal', the entrance to Gods Ranch is passed. Who knew they/she/he had such a magnificent place? Nearby some lovely prickly pear cactus brighten the landscape.

Crowfoot Ferry and Operator

The crossing!

We arrive at Crowfoot Ferry after a little over 2 hours drive. The Bow is about 100m wide and very slow moving at this point. The Ferry is a cable type, as they all are, that links Range Road 201 across the bow. 

Bow River at Crowfoot Ferry Crossing

The operator, unsurprisingly, said he was not very busy....the trip across took all of  two minutes. Mildly anticlimatic. First one in the bag onto Finnegan Ferry in Special Area #2.

Finnegan Ferry

Finnegan Ferry

Once across the mighty Bow River the blacktop returns, in a couple minutes the Trans-Canada highway is crossed and the Finnegan Ferry is within 75 kms. Finnegan Ferry crosses the Red Deer River on secondary highway 862 in Alberta's Special Area #2.The white line turns to gravel/mud for the last 15kms. More rain here than near Crowfoot made for greasy driving. 

You might ask? What is a Special Area? Some might think it is where former Premier, known by some as "Special" Ed Stelmack was from, that is incorrect. Special Ed supposedly lead the Alberta Government from 2006 to 2011 and hails from Vegreville. 

The three special areas were created in 1938 under the authority of the Special Areas Act.  A result of extreme hardship inflicted upon southeastern Alberta (and a lot of Saskatchewan) by Dirty/Hungry Thirties conditions simliar to those experienced in Oklahoma and Kansas. 

Red Deer Advocate

These dustbowl conditions were caused by inappropriate farming practices encouraged by stupid governments (I guess that goes without saying).

These dust storms lasted into the 1940's when wetter weather returned. The Banks took most of the failed farms and they eventually ended up in government hands. Today farming practices are better in these areas, with a few large farmers working several townships(36 square miles) each.

  The Special Areas cover about 2.1 Million acres (about 4% of Alberta), In 1920 there were over 50,000 residents, today about 10,000. A true wilderness on the prairie.

Highway 862 follows a coulee down to the ferry terminal at the Red Deer River. We are greeted by flashy signs and a door bell on a post to call the Ferryman. 

Finnegan Ferry Operator

A gentleman emerges from the Ferry Keepers residence and gets on his quad to drive the 25m to the ferry dock. He did get off to lower gates and run the equipment. To be fair, the old boy is at least my age, and I didn't walk on board either. He tells me of previous trips to the Calgary Stampede where he helped with Rodeo and 100th Anniversary in 2012. Would no doubt be a pleasure to tip a few pints with him and hear his story.

Red Deer River at Finnegan Ferry Dock

The river is flat and calm like the couple of times in the 1990's that I did beer float canoe trips with friends and our young families. Fond memories of floating in the river with the lifejackets.... Again the ferry time is far less than 5 minutes, as close to instant ferry gratification as one can get. The Ferryman said the day before in the storm there were whitecaps on the river.

From the ferry landing its about 75kms to Drumheller, heart of the Alberta badlands. Of that 10kms or so of mud/gravel are navigated to where 862 intersects secondary Highway 570 and more blacktop is found. From Drumheller its about 20kms further to the Bleriot Ferry landing.

Pronghorn Antelope

Pronghorn Antelope are seen crossing the road in a couple places and of course awesome clouds are ever present. Antelopes are members of the goat family, not true antelopes(whatever that may be). These creatures weigh up to 150 pounds and can run at 100kms/hr. Not quite as fast as a cheetah but can keep it up much longer. Fascinating inhabitants of this wilderness

 

Highway 10 

Highway 570 travels west to intersect Highway 10 near East Coulee. The transition from flat travel on the plains of Highway 570 to the Red Deer River badlands on Highway 10 in the river valley is incredibly dramatic!

Another out of service grain elevator

Bridge over Red Deer near East Coulee

Sandstones sculpted by eons of the flow of water and wind dominate the landscape. 

Surrounded by spectacular vistas of the Red Deer River and Hoodoos.

Kirkpatrick Elevator

At Drumheller the van is fueled up, delicious vietnamese cusine is enjoyed at the Vietnamese Noodle House Drumheller, highly recommended.

Orkney Lookout East

From Drumheller the Dinosaur Trail (Highway 575) is taken west to the Bleriot Ferry. 

On the way the grain elevator at Kirkpatrick provides a beacon on the trail. Then Highway 575 ascends out of the valley to the Orkney Lookout which provides a spectacular oversite of the sandstone formations carved in the river valley. 

Orkney Lookout west

A  couple more derelict buildings signal the turn onto the ferry access road followed by a steep descent to the Bleriot Ferry landing, and the second crossing of the Red Deer.

 

Bleriot Ferry and Beyond

 Bleriot Ferry and Beyond

A short steep descent and one arrives at the Bleriot Ferry landing, the final crossing of the Red Deer River. This time there is even another vehicle on the ferry waiting to debark! Traffic! After a wait of maybe a minute the ferry is ready to board. 

Similar drill as previous  ferries, but a slower crossing, at least 5 minutes to cross but only because the ferry was operating at a slower speed. The Red Deer is less wide at Bleriot as many river miles upstream from Finnegan. 

Red Deer River at Bleriot

There were even a couple other vehicles waiting on other side to board!

Three Ferry trips completed in a little over 6 hours all in. Looks like no problem to travel to all 6 in 2 days.... 

From Bleriot the next river ferry is the Klondyke Ferry that crosses the Athabasca north of Barrhead. 

Trochu Golf Course

Heading north up Highway 21 its hard to miss what is claimed to be the worlds largest golf tee at Trochu. At 40 feet tall it may well be.

Not far off the direct path to the Klondyke Ferry is the town of Elnora. Elnora was where my oil and gas career reached a satisfactory conclusion. I felt the need to visit the site of the 9-20 well a little east of town on Highway 590. The well was drilled by Bashaw Oil in 2013 and encountered almost 30m of oil charged Devonian Nisku reef, initial flow was over 1000 bbls/day. Doesn't get much better! 

Bashaw Elnora 9-20-35-22

A short homecoming video of Elnora 9-20 is at the Link below:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VHiSFYdmtHg&feature=youtu.be

Elnora also has a grand rodeo (Brama Rama) in August each year, another link of some interest from 2013 below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH3d54Zwv24

Genesee Power Plant Near North Saskatchewan River

From Elnora, the path went westward to Innisfail then north to Sylvan Lake, Rimbey, Genesee, across Highway 16, Onoway and onto Barrhead. A 4 1/2 hour drive. Fueled up in Barrhead in anticipation of spending night at Klondyke Ferry Park prior to crossing Athabasca River on ferry in the morning.

From there La Crete Ferry is only another 400+ miles and almost 7 hours away.... 

Wilcox Campsite

A few minutes north of Barrhead the wheels fell off. On entry to Highway 769, a sign on road side declared that the Klondyke Ferry was closed! A phone call to the operator confirmed this to be true. Flood waters on the Athabasca River forced closure of the service due to high water level😢. Another call to La Crete operator advised that the La Crete Ferry across the Peace River was closed due to LOW water levels? Go figure British Columbia must be filling the new dam. The remaining Shaftsbury Ferry reported that they were closed due to equipment issues. Sadly the long drive to La Crete and onto Shaftsbury will have to wait for another time.... Barrhead became the evening destination at the municipal campground. Decent facility.

Athabasca Glacier

In the AM decided to take head home via Grande Praire, Hinton, Jasper and Columbia Icefields then back to White Post Lane. Another 13 hours on the road and over 1200 kms of highway. 

The night was spent at Wilcox Campground near the Columbia Icefields. The campgrounds between Jasper and the Icefields were either closed due to trees down from massive snowfall 2 days previous or full due to the others being closed. 

There was still snow on the picnic table at Wilcox camp from the storm! A campsite was had.

Yours Truly on Summit of Mount Columbia June 23, 1994

It occurred to me, as I passed the Athabasca Glacier, that 29 years ago to the day, June 22nd, 1994, that my friend Mark Balog and I had started skiing up that glacier in another attempt to summit Mt. Columbia. We crossed the Columbia Icefield to the trench and slogged onward up to the base of Mt. Columbia, the highest peak in Alberta. 

We arrived at our 'camp' (a hole in the snow with our feet in our pack, pictured below on descent) at 11:30PM and waited out the few hours of darkness. 

Climbing Notes June 23, 1994

Columbia Camp June 1994

At 3AM on June 23, 1994 we started kicking steps toward the summit and arrived at 4:30AM. A fine cup of soup was enjoyed on the summit as we watched the sunrise. We were back to our vehicle at the highway by 10:50AM, less than 18 hours round trip. No doubt my finest Alpine achievement! I had previously made 7 unsucessful attempts at climbing Mt. Columbia, the learning from those failed attempts provided the insight on how to get it done. Good weather is critical, as are good snow conditions. A lot of luck and good partner very important. At 39 years old I was never in better shape, I had completed the Haute Route in France/Switzerland less than 2 months prior.... "The older we get the better we were"

Bow Lake

Left Wilcox campground early, vistas on the Icefield Parkway were spectacular. Bow Lake a mirror for the towering peaks. Coffee at Lake Louise and back to White Post by noon. A little over 2000kms all in. A long drive. Not quite the adventure planned but a good one never the less.