I was free to wander wherever I might want to go. Being late August 2024, it was too early to be going south, so I would start by heading north west of Calgary, exploring along the Clearwater River, close and far from civilization at the same time. Read on to see what I mean by that, and follow me south in my fall travels.
Damage at the south 2nd bridge
I had decided to travel down more gravel roads to hopefully avoid some of the weekend traffic during the busy September long weekend in Canada. There was some area a ways back that dropped down into the Clearwater River valley, where there was cell signal. It is a long gravel road drive now, but wasn’t a few years back. You see, a bridge crosses the Clearwater River close to where I was, leading you back to a secondary highway only a half a klick away that took you back to Caroline in short order. But the bridge had been damaged several years back, I’m guessing during the 2013 flooding. Now, you could still cross by foot, but definitely no cars, and most definitely no RVs were going this way. So, I could walk across the bridge, and with a long walk, come to the first RV park that had a general store to get an ice cream if I wanted. But driving, I’d take as long to get back to Sundre for any serious resupply with the RV.
But I didn’t know all this coming in. All I knew is I was way back down some gravel roads in a nice grass field that had been an oil field site a long time ago. I figured all this out exploring the area and talking to the one remaining local living on the ‘bridge out’ side of the river. He had a long run back to Sundre to get supplies, but on the other hand, way fewer people camped in the area now that you had to travel way more gravel road to get there.
I’d have stayed there a whole week, but for two things: There was a wet bit of road just dry enough to pass without getting stuck. There was rain in the forecast, possibly enough that I’d get stuck on that bit of road. So I packed up my things and said goodbye to the cows, taking my RV past that muddy bit of road and up to another spot I’d found exploring with the motorcycle. This was a bit closer to the river, and even possible to walk back to civilization on the closed bridge. There were boondockers on the other side of the river, just a half klick away from the paved highway, down the road from a full service RV park. Civilization didn’t seem so far away anymore.
Clearwater River near my first camp
I even had a friend come out for a weekend BBQ over the fire. This new spot was easy to find, but you had to ignore the googles for the last bit since it had the whole road going to the bridge marked as closed, so it would try to take you ‘through the bush’ a ways down the main road. Googles doesn’t do well in the backroads, you have to verify for yourself to make sure the directions are right. I was happy I moved – it was easy to get out of this spot after the rain, for another trip back to Calgary, this time to deal with the saga that was getting my new cell phone.
Leaving Clearwater camp #2
I know, I know, I said I was free to travel again, but the stupid cell phone order dragged me back to Calgary. Believe it or not, after all the wrangling on the phone, I ended up just getting a Pixel 9 Pro XL 128GB phone directly from the Telus store, and even that was an exercise in frustration. Then I had to wait for my screen protector an extra day. But I got a deal from Telus on a high data plan, so that’s something. My only other break was going to the same cell phone accessory mall kiosk and finding my exact same case from my Pixel 6 available in a Pixel 9 version. I liked the 6 case, so getting the 9 version was a no brainer and most importantly, it was available to buy on the spot without delay. Now, I could finally head south, there would be no more Calgary ‘in person’ business to attend to until next year!
I was further in the back away from the others
Coleman pond. No fish to be had.
I was headed for McGillivray Staging Area. This is primarily an off road play area, but you can camp here. I would never camp here in the middle of summer as I’d be listening to quads going by all day everyday and it would be a zoo on the weekends. But it was now September past the long weekend. Things calm down a lot then, although with the nice weather you still get some late season people. But at this point you can spread out and have some privacy at least. You can even hike to a little fishing lake nearby. I gave it a try, but no fishies for me there. I revisited the spot I camped at last fall out there, this year it was occupied to my surprise. But each day there seemed to be
Allison Falls
another rig or two leaving the area so it got emptier as the week went on. I was displeased to see signs that people had been long term camping in the area. Excuse me, but I’m paying for public land camping now with the understanding that some enforcement of the rules was going to happen? Really about all that has happened is the building of fences so that you can’t just camp any place now, and there are actually brochures available now sometimes at the information boards so you can grab a map of the area. I guess I shouldn’t expect too much for the $30 per year I pay now, it’s a lot cheaper than the $28/night dry camping cost the provincial parks charge.
The cows were taking over as people left the area – probably getting in there to graze the bits that had not been grazed much with people all over them. I left them to their grazing, wanting to get onto newer pastures myself.
Cows eat ash out of firepits ya know.
Cows left me a gift
Onward I went to BC, this time to explore the Elk Valley. I was going to work my way up the valley, then come back down, detouring to visit to friends in Lethbridge, then head down to Koocanusa, and south from there. It wasn’t the most efficient plan, but that’s how I roll sometimes – flitting here and there like a bee.
Sparwood’s big coal truck. Note the bench on the lower right for scale.
Sparwood marks the entrance to the Elk Valley. Coal mining, lumber and tourism are the main job drivers here. Elkford up the valley is pretty much a coal mining town – one of only a few left in Western Canada. It has that feel of having been thrown up all in one go for function, thus a lot of the buildings look like they are derivatives of what you find in a modern work camp. It all looked functional low maintenance, but not pretty by any stretch. But I was there to camp, a functional set of towns with grocery stores, gas, water and dump were just fine for me.
Road to the right was not really passable past here
My plan was to camp at the first decent spot I found, then explore ahead up the valley with my motorcycle, saving myself the exploring down bad roads with the RV. Looking at the googles aerial photos, there looked to be a boondocking spot up Cummings Creek. There might even be cell service there, so off I went to check it out. Indeed, there was a bit of cell service although the road in was pretty gnarly. I actually gave up before getting to the spot I saw on the aerial and camped on a gravel bar, only wet during the highest river flows.
The area turned out to be pretty good for exploring on foot, but not so much with the motorcycle. I’d have had to be brave crossing the little bridges that were made for the width of an ATV set of tires, not for two wheel bikes. One mistake on my part and I’d be in the creek. I decided that risk was too great and spent most of my week here hiking around. It’s too bad as the you really needed to get out a ways to get up and out of the valley.
I could hear construction in the distance often, even on my walks. I was trying to figure out the source and finally saw that there was a new logging road being built above my camp and above the trails I was exploring. It was a steep climb up to confirm the new road, which was almost invisible from my low vantage. I was reminded of the construction one day returning from my hike, finding a bunch of fallen trees and a large boulder than had come crashing down from above, fortunately not while I was walking below!
Near miss trees and boulder (right)
Really, more warning than a ‘construction, falling rocks’ sign at the entrance to road I had travelled with my RV was in order. I wasn’t the only one who had gone in there. A group of ATVers came in and found there way blocked from going further in by the trees and boulder. I wonder if they had a chain saw with them? Further subsequent research revealed to me that the logging roads were being built to some Pine Beetle infested stands up the south side of the valley from me. It would be interesting to return after the logging is done and see if I can travel these new roads or not.
RV is at south sunny end of site. Pit toilet and sites at north shady end
Having ventured out with the motorcycle one day, I knew there was camping north of Elkford at Krivensky Farm rec site. I’ll tell you a little secret about BC rec sites – they are not all marked on the official map. It seems there are sites that are perhaps decommissioned or have never been developed into a full rec site. Now, you can find these sites by stumbling across them, or sometimes you will see them on a physical map board posted in the area. But it turns out they are actually on the official map, just not as little green pins. You need to zoom in far enough to see private land, which I’m doing anyways scouting an area to see if I can boondock. Private land is an extra layer than needs to be turned on with the the ‘Parcel Map BC Parcel Fabric’ layer. Also, you need to be using the ‘Navigation’ map in the base gallery map section (which should be the default to start). After all that, now that you can see private land and all of these ‘unlisted’ sites, you can find some hidden spots not listed anywhere else I can find. Be warned: a bit of land listed could be nothing at all, as the site may be long gone, or never have been developed.
Fishing spot near my camp
Krivensky Farm rec site may not be listed but it isn’t hidden – if you travel north of Elkford a few klicks down the main gravel road you’ll see signs and some typical rec site facilities in the trees at the edge of a meadow. I camped on the other end of the meadow with a nice view of the Elk River and more sun. The price I paid was being near the edge of the road and having a visitors pop in to fish the river beside me. This was the beginning of hunting season too. A group of hunters came in to camp at the site. I found more hunters up the valley at other rec sites, so don’t assume they are empty way out there in the fall.
25cm Cutthroat Trout
I found a nice fishing hole near my camp and decided to get a BC fishing license. I had not yet gotten a license for the year, but figured I might be fishing more over the fall so just got the full year license for $65. It turns out that I needed a Class II license for $23 to fish anything in this area too so I ponied up for that too. Only after paying did I realise the Class II license was only good for a day. Being after lunch already, I hustled out to make the most of my one day fishing license for the area. While the fishing was good, the Cutthroat Trout were just under the 30cm size limit to keep one for dinner. Combined with the high daily price, I wouldn’t buy this again just to have a bit of afternoon fun. But I’m not a fanatic fishing person anyways.
Each box is a long set of core samples
I worked my way up the valley, camping next at an abandoned coal mine camp. I found out from the locals why the mine nearby never got going beyond a test pit. While there was good coal, the water table inflow made it too expensive to dig further down to get it. The camp was interesting because it had a lot of the remaining core samples used to figure out where the coal was. There were two trailers of these things plus a first aid hut remaining on the site. The abandonment still looks fairly recent, so I camped one clearing down from the camp just in case someone came in to visit. Upon further inspection, I could see no one had been there in some time. I’m just used to encountering things abandoned for many years rather than just a few.
Abandoned First Aid shack
I found out at this site that hunters go everywhere during hunting season. Even though I had gone down a disused road that I had to cut a few branches off to get my RV through, I still had hunters come by several times scouting for spots to shoot Elk. You definitely need to be aware of hunting activity in the area when walking about the roads and trails in the area. While hunters are not supposed to shoot anywhere near a campsite, I did run across one setting up screens in a field a bit too close to the campsite in my opinion. Hunters can be lazy just like anyone else.
I was fortunate to be in a very dark sky area for two spectacular astronomical events: A comet, and a strong northern lights show. Comet Tsuchinshan was visible just after sunset to the west of me. I had clear skies one night, getting to photograph the comet just after its head set behind the mountains. Of course, the weather did not co-operate the nights following, with just enough cloud around every night after to keep me from getting an unobstructed view. It’s too bad, that comet was definitely bright enough to get a decent picture even with my cell phone. I had better luck with the bright northern lights. It was one of the stronger sets in the last few years and lit up the sky very nicely in my dark sky area.
Even to the SE things were lit up
Weary Creek
I did one more hop further up the valley, to the edge of the cell signal in the area. Thanks to the coal mining, there is a cell tower on a hill that reaches way up the valley, much further from civilization that you normally would get signal. I had to boondock this time as the little rec site by the creek was taken by a large hunting party. At least there were some alternatives in the area, but I was surprised more than once finding a camp setup even far up the valley. The weather was holding out with sunny warm days and night temperatures just below freezing. I took advantage of this hiking up to the high country near my camp, and taking the motorcycle to Elk Valley Provincial Park.
Lower Elk Lake
I had been to the Provincial Park before many years ago with my Dad, fishing of course. I visited the remains of the old cabin, only a falling down out building remained. There is a new cabin that is a commercial operation – you can rent this out. If you are willing to drive a long ways up gravel roads, this would be a spectacular spot to glamp camp for some hiking and fishing. I hiked the trail to the lower Elk Lake feeling a bit of melancholy. It’s not often in my travels I’ve revisited a place I used to go with my Dad. Most of those places are now too overrun with people and/or not great for my style of camping. So I hiked a trail we once hiked together, remembering the adventures we had. It is not an easy hike from Alberta, having to cross the continental divide and drop down into the Elk Valley. Your hike back is as tough as your hike in thanks to that climb out. But the scenery is worth it. While the cabin situation may have changed, the scenery is still the same, even if the backcountry camping is now a pay to camp situation by the Lower Elk Lake.
Elk Lakes cabin remains
Powerline to Alberta
Tobermory Hut
My explorations up the Elk Valley were at an end. It was time to head to Lethbridge to visit friends, then onto the Koocanusa Reservoir area to hang out before crossing into the USA. See you next time as I return to BC.
As always, my Flickr account has more photos I didn’t post here, feel free to browse my Elk Valley set to see all the scenery along this valley.
