From the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip, Part 2

 From the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip, Part 2

Highway 620, Foothills and Brazeau Dam Area

(Oct 2023)

This is a 3-part blog about a day-trip from Edmonton Alberta to the Brazeau Dam site, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is a bit long, so I broke it up into 3 parts.  The numbering of the route subsections picks up from the first blog, starting at 5:

1. To Highway 620, from Edmonton, following the N. Sask River, more or less.

   https://dodecahedronbooks.blogspot.com/2023/10/from-prairies-to-foothills-brazeau-dam.html

2. Highway 620 in the foothills, including a stop at the Brazeau Dam Reservoir.

3. From Highway 11 back to Edmonton, through the south-central farmlands.

    

5) Highway 620 to the Brazeau Dam

 

 Highway 620 runs for a bit over 100 km, from Drayton Valley to the intersection with Highway 11. The Brazeau Dam is about half way, at 52 km. There is also a large reservoir that was created by the dam and that now provides the falling water that drives the turbines. The Brazeau site is part of a connected series of water management processes, for flood control, irrigation and power in southern Alberta.

Traffic on this route was quite light, though there were a number of logging trucks, as this is forestry country. Similarly for oilfield trucking. You see quite a few turnoffs along the highway, sometimes to habitations, but often roads that are used to access logging or oil exploration sites.

There are a couple of small hamlets or towns along the way to the Brazeau Dam, such as Violet Grove and Lodgepole. Lodgepole is notable for being the site of a sour gas well blowout, which wasn’t controlled for over two months, back in 1982. The rotten egg sour gas smell was noticeable throughout much of the province, even being detectable as far away as Winnipeg at times. This occurred during the dead of winter, which certainly didn’t help matters, as the air can be quite still during cold snaps, so the small could linger for a long time. A blowout preventer was brought in, that finally capped the well. However, before that success, tragedy struck, killing two and injuring 16, in some failed attempts to cap it. It was a tricky operation and some of the most experienced Texans in the profession finally had to be called in, to shut it down.

It seemed as if we came on the Brazeau Dam rather suddenly, had a quick look, and it was gone. The best I can do, is a photo from the internet (Global News).

Alberta doesn’t have very many hydro-power sites, but this is one of the larger of those few. The Brazeau Dam power-station can produce about 400,000 Megawatt-Hours (400 Gigawatt-Hours) of electricity per year . The 16 solar panels at my house produce about 4,500 Kilowatt-Hours (4.5 Megawatt-Hours) per year (4.5 Megawatt-Hours), so this dam produces about as much electricity as 88,000 or so residential solar panel installations, assuming my house is fairly typical. One of the bigger hydro-station generators in Quebec’s James Bay project (LG-4) produces about 12,300 Gigawatt-Hours per year, so about 31 times as much power as the Brazeau Dam (and that’s just one station among many in Quebec). These figures explain why oil-rich Alberta is not as keen on decarbonizing the economy as hydro-rich Quebec is.

Shortly thereafter was the turnoff to the Brazeau Reservoir Recreation Area. It was about lunchtime, so we turned in there to explore a bit and find a place to eat our picnic meal.

We headed for the area intended for day visitors, which was right next to the boat launch site. There was a fair bit of parking and some benches near the reservoir, on which one could relax by the water. However, there didn’t seem to be any picnic tables, so we wandered a bit further and came across a group camping site. Technically, it was off limits to day visitors and closed for the season anyway. But there was nobody around, so we ducked under the gate that blocked the vehicle entrance to this area and located a picnic table, from whence we proceeded to consume our repast of cheese and sausage sandwiches followed by apple pie. Plus, of course coffee. Neither of us had bothered with much of a breakfast, so this simple meal seemed to be quite delicious. It generally helps any dish to be eaten outside on a picnic table.

Before continuing our journey we did a very brief reconnoitre of the area. Scott noticed that some poles beside a copse of trees had wires going to them. Further investigation revealed an electrical transformer and a panel box, nestled within this area, which also sported a fire-pit. There were electrical outlets of various voltages, so obviously this was meant to supply power to RVs and such. By now I imagine that the power was shut off, though we didn’t test anything, merely made visual observations of the site. There were also pipes encased in concrete footings, coming out of the ground here and there, near where RVs might be parked. I presumed that this was also something to do with camping (i.e. a utility hookup for RVs). I suppose you could say this was a bit of a glamping site, to use a current phrase (i.e. not exactly roughing it).

Leaving aside the mysteries of RV camping, it was time to leave, if we were to make this a daylight day-trip. The October sun sets pretty early in Alberta. We switched driving duties, since part of the reason for the trip was my continuing project to get my son Scott some more wheel-time, and thus get his full driver’s licence. He hadn’t driven since July, when we went on a long day-trip to southeastern Alberta, so he was feeling a bit rusty.

But before that we were delayed by a couple of motorcyclists who visited the day area where we were parked. But they were harmless, just visiting the area for a quick pit-stop. Once they were on their way, Scott took a few quick turns in the boat-launch area, to get a feel for the car again, and we were off, heading south on Highway 620 again.

6) Highway 620, Brazeau Dam to Highway 11 Intersection

Shortly after leaving the Reservoir area, we came upon the Brazeau Dam spillway. Our motorcycle friends had stopped there for a better look. I would have liked to do so as well, but we had a schedule to keep, so we just had a fleeting look at it. Another time, I guess. But here is a picture, from the internet (Google Images). The left hand frame shows the dam spillway during normal operations, the right hand frame shows the dam during the 2012 flood year.

Highway 620 from that point on was not too busy. It was well paved, with some winding sections and some long straightaways. However, there continued to be quite a few logging trucks that we met up with, going the other way. There were also quite a few large trucks that seemed to be hauling gravel or sand, judging by the tarping of the loads. Trucks hauling oil were also evident. In fact, there seemed to be more trucks than cars.

At this time of year, there were many tamarack trees, with their needles now changed to a sort of brown-orange colour. This is one of the few “evergreen” trees that actually is not ever green. Like deciduous trees, they change colour in the fall. There were also stretch of grasses along the roadside that had changed colour to a yellowy-red shade. Quite pretty – reminded me of the lilies-of-the-valley, in our back-yard.

At some locations, there were some very long hills to climb. Cycling this route would be quite the challenge.

There weren’t a lot of landmarks in this section of the highway, but following are a few that we saw:

• The bridge over the Nordegg River was quite scenic (Google Maps photo)

  
  
  

• There was a gas plant near the Nordegg River. Generally, the idea is to strip out the sour gas (hydrogen sulphide) from the methane, as it is very toxic. That also produces a lot of elemental sulphur, which can be sold and used for various industrial purposes. You might see huge stacks of sulphur blocks near one of these plants.

• The was a turnoff for the Sunchild First Nations settlement.

• Another crossing was at the Brewster Creek Bridge.  Photo from Google Maps.
  

  
  
  

• There was also a water crossing at the Baptiste River Bridge.

Since landmarks were rather sparse, mileage signs were sometimes visible on the side of the road. Presumably, those would be helpful for drivers of logging trucks and other vehicles to get their bearings, find the proper road into the bush and that sort of thing.

At the intersection of Highway 620 and Highway 11 we turned east onto 11.

In Part 3, we finish the trip.

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Further Reading

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On the Road with Bronco Billy

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What follows is an account of a ten day journey through western North America during a working trip, delivering lumber from Edmonton Alberta to Dallas Texas, and returning with oilfield equipment. The writer had the opportunity to accompany a friend who is a professional truck driver, which he eagerly accepted. He works as a statistician for the University of Alberta, and is therefore is generally confined to desk, chair, and computer. The chance to see the world from the cab of a truck, and be immersed in the truck driving culture was intriguing. In early May 1997 they hit the road.

Some time has passed since this journal was written and many things have changed since the late 1990’s. That renders the journey as not just a geographical one, but also a historical account, which I think only increases its interest.

We were fortunate to have an eventful trip - a mechanical breakdown, a near miss from a tornado, and a large-scale flood were among these events. But even without these turns of fate, the drama of the landscape, the close-up view of the trucking lifestyle, and the opportunity to observe the cultural habits of a wide swath of western North America would have been sufficient to fill up an interesting journal.

The travelogue is about 20,000 words, about 60 to 90 minutes of reading, at typical reading speeds.

Driving North - On the Road to Northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories: A Driving Journal

Have you ever wondered about a road trip to the far north, north of the Sixtieth Parallel? Well, here is your chance to read about three road trips, through the Peace River country and the northern Rockies, all the way to the shores of Great Slave Lake, just south of the Arctic Circle.

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The highways in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories give one the opportunity to drive pretty far north, without a lot of elaborate preparations and extreme expense. Starting from Edmonton, one can drive as far north as Yellowknife, NWT, without leaving the hardtop, so an average vehicle can do the trip. There are a reasonable number of fair sized towns along the way, so accommodations are not much of a problem, either. The same goes for food, gasoline and other essentials.

One can also link up with the Alaska Highway, and the Dempster Highway, and make it all the way to the Arctic Ocean. But that’s another story.

Trip number 1 involved driving north through Alberta, visiting several areas of interest along the way, then into the Northwest Territories, to Hay River on the southern shore of Great Slave Lake. The return trip featured a drive through the north-central foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Trip number 2 was a combined air and car trip. We went to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories by airplane, then rented a car to explore much of the area of the north shore of Great Slave Lake.

Trip number 3 was a return to Hay River, with a different travelling companion. This allowed one to retrace steps, compare and contrast, and focus on some areas that we had not had time to explore in depth on trip number 1.