From
the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip, Part 1
Edmonton to Highway 620, near Drayton Valley
(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:
-
To
Highway 620, from Edmonton, following the N. Sask River, more or
less.
-
Highway
620 in the foothills, including a stop at the Brazeau Dam Reservoir.
-
From
Highway 11 back to Edmonton, through the south-central farmlands.
There are two main aspects to a road trip: the journey and the
destination. Sometimes the trip is all about the journey, sometimes
it’s all about the destination. Usually it is a little of both.
To a considerable extent, it depends on the time spent on the
journey versus the destination. If most of the time is spent
“getting there”, then the journey is the main thing. If most of
the time is spent “being there”, then the destination is the
thing.
This Oct 19, 2023 day-trip from Edmonton to the Brazeau Dam and
back definitely focuses on the “journey” aspect of a road trip,
rather than the destination. As such, I will go through it in some
detail, describing the various highways, large and small, paved and
gravel, that we took. I will note the scenery and other observations
that the journey inspired.
1) Edmonton to Spring Lake (Highway 628 west),
then a short drive on Hwy 770 south to Hwy 627
Highway 628 out of Edmonton is mostly a fairly narrow two-lane
road, that passes by the River Cree Resort and Casino (owned by a
local native community), then by semi-rural farmland interspersed
with acreage developments. Eventually it goes by a small community
called Spring Lake, which is a nice little area about 30 km from the
outskirts of Edmonton. I have friends and relatives that lived
there, on acreage properties.
From the Spring Lake area, you can take a range road (20) south to
pick up Highway 627 or carry on west to Highway 770, which can then
be used to connect southwards to Highway 627. However we chose to
carry on even farther west, which led to some narrow and hilly gravel
range and township roads.
This was an interesting diversion, though rather slow, due to the
gravel surface and the twisting roads. It was very interesting to
drive and quite scenic – well treed, with small farms, sometimes
hobby farms and acreage type dwellings. The trees are mostly aspen
and balsam poplar with some white spruce. The hilliness is due to
glacial deposits, from the time of the last ice age. Unfortunately,
since I was busy driving and Scott was busy navigating, we didn’t
get any pictures. It would be well worth returning, just for that,
as well as the fun of the drive.
After a while we reached Highway 770,
where we turned south. This is a fairly short connector to Hwy 627.
It also goes through this hilly, small-lake country. Jackfish Lake
is a notable local recreation area and fishing hole. By the way,
Jackfish is another name for Northern Pike.
2) Highway 627 west to Intersection with Highway 759
After a drive of only ten minutes of so, we reached Highway 627
and headed west. The North Saskatchewan River comes fairly close to
this highway at one point, but there is no crossing. The route is
mostly farmland at this point, with some treed areas that seem to be
following streams that feed into the North Saskatchewan, though many
of these may be ephemeral streams (only there during high water).
There was a surprising amount of truck traffic on this stretch of
the road. In a short time, this was revealed to be due to the
Keephills Generating Station, which is just off the highway, to the
south, less than ten kilometers from the turnoff.
This general area has been mined extensively for coal, which
supplies this plant and some others just north at Lake Wabamun. As
one would expect, there is a fair bit of moonscape, from the mining.
Some of these areas have obviously been reclaimed as they are mined
out, as there are large acreages of fairly new grass. We spotted a
couple of very large pieces of machinery (drag-lines? Big buckets?),
that had obviously used in coal mining. Were they too expensive to
move? No market to sell them? Or were they waiting for coal-mining
to be permitted again? It’s was a mystery.
As far as I know, the generating plants in Alberta are not
supposed to be using coal anymore. But perhaps some are
grandfathered in, and still use coal. It is hard to think of what
else the big trucks coming to and going from the generating station
would be hauling. Natural gas would no doubt be supplied by
pipeline.
A look at their website said that two of their boilers have been
converted to natural gas, but one of them is still burning coal,
though with substantial emission controls. There was no indication
of whether or not they were keeping it going with coal, intending it
to be a CO2 capture project eventually. But, maybe that’s the
plan. There are huge plans for carbon capture and sequestration in
this general area.
At the intersection of Hwy 627 and Hwy 759, we turned south.
3) Highway 759 to Highway 39
This was fairly flat land, mostly farms and fields. The highway
was good.
There is a small town called Tomahawk along the way, with a bar
called the Dog Gone Saloon. The place has the virtue of interesting
names. The saloon’s Facebook page seems to primarily feature
strippers, which is, shall we say, unexpected. Some might say, this
needs a photo, so this one is fairly mellow - nothing you might not see at the beach (from the saloon’s
facebook page).
The highway does have a crossing of the North Saskatchewan River
(Berrymoor Bridge). The river is quite broad at this point but the
valley is not very deep and the bridge is quite utilitarian. Too be
fair, the river is low at this time of year, so the view probably
suffers a bit for that. There is a campground nearby, so you could
try your hand at fishing, or put in a canoe.
At the intersection of this highway with Highway 39, we turned
west again.
4) Highway 39 (22) to Highway 620, near Drayton Valley
Highway 39 is a fairly busy road, as it is approaching Drayton
Valley at this point. That means quite a lot of truck traffic in
particular, as Drayton Valley is an important industrial center for
this area. That includes agriculture, forestry and oil-field, all of
which are heavily truck-based.
Highway 39 ends a little ways before Drayton Valley, and becomes
Highway 22. At that point, you can take Hwy 22 west or Hwy 22 south.
We took the western leg as it heads towards Drayton Valley.
There is another crossing of the North Saskatchewan River shortly
before getting to Drayton Valley. Like the previous crossing at
Berrymoor, the bridge is far from spectacular, though the river is
very wide and sports an island on one side (Google Maps photo).
There are some campgrounds nearby, where you can rent cabins, and
enjoy being near the big river. They look to be quite cozy.
There was a turnoff, which a lot of trucks seemed to be taking,
somewhat before reaching Drayton Valley, but it wasn’t clear what
the business was. Probably a sawmill, as there is a big Weyerhaeuser
mill in town.
Just before the main part of Drayton Valley is the turnoff tho
Highway 620, which goes to the Brazeau Dam and Reservoir. We turned
south onto that road.
Further Reading
If you like road trips, here are a couple more on Amazon, just
$0.99 (99 cents U.S., equivalent in other currencies). Once every
three months or so, they are free, so keep looking if you want to
save that money for your retirement years. :)
On
the Road with Bronco Billy
Sit back and go on a ten day
trucking trip in a big rig, through western North America, from
Alberta to Texas, and back again. Explore the countryside, learn
some trucking lingo, and observe the shifting cultural norms across
this great continent.
Amazon
U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
U.K.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon
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Amazon
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Amazon
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Amazon
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India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00X2IRHSK
=======================================================
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.
Just
$1.99 on Amazon, or free if you have Kindle Unlimited.
Amazon
U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
U.K: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B074LZDQ9F
Amazon
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B074LZDQ9F
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.
