Alberta Ferries

[BrianWilliams]

Drumheller is a charming place, with more to enjoy than I had imagined. We went to visit the stupendous Royal Tyrrell Museum (best dinosaur display in the world, I think) ... but added three days to our stay to hike the coulees, see extinct coal mines and enjoy this oddly charming town.

Bleriot Ferry is a cable-guided barge over the Red Deer River a few miles upstream from the town.



The 1978 boat is registered "Bleriot : Port Of Edmonton" Its length is 1/3rd of the Red Deer River's width at that point. Had they commissioned two more hulls, with a bit of welding, they'd have a bridge.

Drumheller, bless 'em, has made the ferry a star tourist attraction.

I did ask a few questions of the operator. Its a powered barge, he said, but has reaction vanes to move the boat if the diesel stalls - and it does, sometimes.



The river current, he said, isn't always strong enough to move the boat. Our crossing was 13 June, and the Red Deer River could have swept a Spirit-class all the way to Hudson's Bay. In August, the Red Deer is a muddy trickle. I suppose wading is an option then.



Nice to see a 100-yr tradition keepin' on.

PS: Obscure Drumheller is an excellent place to spend a few days. After the dinosaurs at Tyrrell have worn you out, the coulees, hoodoos and coal mines will keep you interested. Nice town.

[Low Light Mike]

Thanks for sharing, Brian. Welcome back.

Which routes did you choose for driving through the Rockies and the other main mountain ranges in BC?

[Quinsam]

I'll be driving to Alberta this summer, I may just be able to see this ferry!
Where is the red deer river? On the route between Calgary and Edmonton? If so I'll be using it!

[Curtis]

I might see it too I'm going to Travel around Alberta in Mid-July

[Mike C]

Been to Drumheller. Really, really really cool place. One of, if not, the best dinosaur displays on the face of our planet. It is not on the way to Calgary/Edmonton (this is off a secondary hwy, not Hwy 2).

Flugel: You have a few choices:

1. Trans-Canada Hwy via Banff to Calgary: AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Full of traffic jams and construction sites, Rte 1 is a highway to stay off of. It becomes a 4 lane highway when the Rockies end.

2. Yellowhead Hwy via Jasper to Edmonton: RECOMMENDED CHOICE. Best way to go, almost no traffic, Rte 5 via Rockies/Coquihalla. TOLL HIGHWAY - $10. If you wish to divert to Banff, use Rte 14 Banff-Jasper highway, via Columbia Icefields.

3. Crowsnest Highway via Medicine Hat to Lethbridge: LIKE THE TWO ABOVE COMBINED. A little bit of everything on this highway, you never know what to expect on Highway 3. Enjoy majestic nothing while you travel about 20 mins from the 49th Parallel.

There are some other choices, but those are the main ones.

[Low Light Mike]

Thanks for the info Burnaby Teen, but you misunderstood my question.

I've been driving thru the Rockies for 15 years, and have taken every major Canadian route thru them. So I was interested in knowing which route Brian took, as I really enjoy travel through those mountains.

My favourite is Yellowhead thru Mt. Robson & Jasper. Hwy 16 from the 5/16 junction at Teate Jaune Cache to the eastern-gate of Jasper Park is one of my favourite drives. Moose Lake, the Athabasca River, elk, mountain-sheep......wow !

I also like the history of Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse....but I'm wary of the dangers of the TransCanada route from Kamloops to Banff (too many bad accident spots).

In any case, thanks for your advice......I agree with your recommendations. I think that Hwy 3 is very pretty and offers a good experience of Southern BC communities and scenery.....as well as some good old Doukhobor culture.

[Koastal Karl]

I will be taking the Galena Bay Ferry and hopefully the Kootenay Lake Ferries, the Osprey and the Balfour, and maybe also the Needles Ferry and we might stop and check out the Harrop Ferry too,but dont know if we will actually take that one. This is all after our Discovery Coast ferry trip we will be going though the Kootenays and the Okanagan! How long would it take to drive from Kelowna to Vancouver via Vernon to Kamloops to Cache Creek and down the Fraser Canyon??? I havent been on the Fraser Canyon in years so I am curious to take the route again!

[BrianWilliams]

A general reply to y'all:

Our latest ramble (3-15 June 2006) started with the shortest route to Valemount from Vancouver. Coquihalla to Kamloops, Hwy 5 to Valemount -nice town!- and then on thru Jasper on 16, down the Icefields Hwy (93) to Banff; a few nights in Canmore, then the zig-zag on #1 and Alberta 9 to Drumheller.

If you want to get close to Jasper and Mt Robson, I do recommend Valemount as a good base. This logging and RR town is pleasant and unpretentious. Lots of hotels, ranging from crazy ($250/night) to very cheap ($50). Our choice for three days was the modest Ramakada Motel.

A classic example of "they moved my town", Ramakada is a 1962 motel on Main Street, right by the CN tracks. The 1980's Hwy 5 realignment bypassed Main Street, and Valemount's commercial district moved out to the new highway a mile west.

Clean, quiet, pleasant Ramakada is now a happy reminder of the old days. We had a two-room suite for 50 dollars (no extra charge for dogs), full kitchen and all. From the front porch, stunning views of the Selwyn Mountains.

Next to us, roaring Swift Creek, and behind, the dark spruce forest. Great place, I coulda stayed a month.

20 minutes up the road, Hwy 5 crosses the Fraser River and joins 16 for the short run east to Mt Robson.

Whew!



Mt Robson rises 10,000+ feet straight up from the Fraser River plain. I'm a fan of the Coast and Cascade Mountains, but Robson's sudden appearance is breathtaking. Best of all Rocky Mountain views, I swear.

[BrianWilliams]

Some notes on #1 west of Field:

Long, long overdue, the Kicking Horse Canyon stretch is being rebuilt. It was, with northern New Brunswick's part of the Trans Canada, the deadliest major road in Canada.

Sorry, no pics. Driving and snapping photos would have been too scary. There's a huge concrete bridge underway in the narrowest part of the canyon, 100 feet above the current 2-lane road.

For 20 miles, we saw excavators carving a track 'way above us, building a twin to the narrow highway. Though I don't want to pave the mountains, this project is necessary.

Back in Alberta, the TC is being twinned as well, from Banff town past Lake Louise, and on to Field, BC. The work looks awful, but an exhibit at the Whyte Museum in Banff reassured us.

The highway will not go away. The new construction includes underpasses and overpasses for animals. Two overcrossings are already in place, with four more to come, and the existing undercrossings will be tripled.

Many elk, deer and bears (black and grizzly) are recorded on infra-red cameras, using the existing crossings. Most encouraging: wolves, lynx, cougars and wolverines are following the paths, too. These shy, endangered predators are essential to the health of Canadian mountain animals.

[BrianWilliams]

My favourite route is Highway 3.

Little winding 3 touches alpine forest at Allison Pass, skirts the chilly Similkameen all the way down to near-desert at Keremeos, then lifts us over Richter Pass in sour-lake country.

A brief look at the oasis of Osoyoos, then we're returned to Paradise (after the long Anarchist climb). The Kettle Valley at Rock Creek begins a long ramble thru pines, tall grass, cold rivers and big blue skies.

The frendliest folks in BC begin at Grand Forks, I've found, and extend through Greenwood, Castlegar, Nelson; up the Slocan Valley, and down to Rossland and Trail.

The road goes on, over marvellous Stagleap Pass (snow in July) to warm Creston, and zig-zags through Yahk, Cranbrook (pretty name, ugly Wal-Mart city); then Fernie, Queen of the Rockies.

A wonderful drive.

[Mike C]

Hmm... Highway 3... the farthest along I've ever been is Princeton...

As a victim of Highway 1's ever-so-famous exceedingly long and vigerous traffic jams, if I can avoid it, I will never travel that highway again. If you do, your morale will sink to an all time low, and those granola bars and apple juice boxes won't be very satisfying after about 45 minutes. At that point, you begin to get Trans Canada Syndrom. Common symptoms include: hair pulling, swearing, fingering others, horn honking, and much questioning involving "are we there yet?"

Just a word of advice to all you forum-members, and in response to Brian's notes of Highway 1.

Tips of the Trans-Canada:

-Avoid if possible

[BrianWilliams]

Barely related to the original topic, but a chilling event on our way to Drumheller, 11 June 2006.

The prairies are not flat, as most of you know, but the roads are arrow-straight. They invite 'way too much speed. Alberta Hwy 9 leaves #1 half an hour east of Calgary. 9 goes north, east, north, and east again. We topped a hill just before the crossing of Alberta 21.

The road ahead was a sea of flashing lights. Volunteer FDs, ambulances and every RCMP car from miles around. There was an overturned car in the deep ditch, a mangled truck in the grass nearby, and another car twisted beyond recognition in the middle of the intersection.

All the vehicles were surrounded by rescue people. Fragments of metal, glass and plastic were strewn everywhere. We waited a long time to be waved thru by a firewoman, who was visibly crying.

In 35 years of driving, I have never seen a more horrific wreck. The smashed car on the road had two folks trapped inside, carefully attended by EMTs. I'm not very religious, but I prayed then for their survival, and all the others.

Who knows what happened? It was late afternoon, on a clear bright day. There was very little traffic - we were the only eastbound car waiting to go through, and only 5 or 6 others waited in the other directions.

The speed limit on these roads is 90 km/h, but we'd been passed by local folks doing 120 or more before this point. Very sad.

[Low Light Mike]

Brian's story is a timely reminder, for those of us doing summer road-trips: slow-down. I'll take that advice.

[Koastal Karl]

Some of the highways in BC you can reach that speed. I know I have reached 120km/h along the Coqahalla Connector between Kelowna and Merrit and also up isand on the inland highway and most definately in Alberta too it is really easy to reach that speed.

[Neil]

Brian- I get a little tired of British Columbia's chauvinism when it comes to any lands east of the Rockies, so it is refreshing to read your positive comments about the prairies.

There are about 28 million Canadians living east of BC, and most of them are probably quite happy where they are. The prairies, central Canada, the maritimes, Newfoundland, and the north, all have their charms, and along with BC, make up a pretty good country to be a citizen of. People who are fond of dumping on the prairies for the weather, or Toronto because of it's influence, should get out and experience the rest of the country. I know I'd love to see more of it. Canadians need to get to know each other better.

[Deleted]

Did you stop at the little White Church in Drumheller, Brian? It is a really awesome place---the Museum and surrounding area.
We have a truck and camper so we stayed at the campsite down the hill with the pool---the family just loved it there. I do not like the bugs---the mosquitoes and the black flies that are around in the summertime. We all loved the little boat ride.

Some of the campsites in Alberta used to be free, but the government is now charging money.

The road from Red Deer that passes by Sylvan Lake and on to Rocky Mountain House is really nice. At Rocky Mountain House Museum, we saw some Buffalo---live. The road goes to the Icefields Parkway. It is a good alternate route.

The Fraser Canyon Route, takes about an hour longer than going Hwy 5. (About 4 hours-4 1/2 hours from Vancouver) We costed it out, at one time when the price of gas wasn't this high. Then, it cost about the same, as going on Hwy 5 and paying the toll. You will get to see trains going through the canyon as well, at an RV camp in the canyon, one can actually see three trains going by---that is if your timing is right. Very nice scenery and tunnels to go through. There is a lot of sharp turns so you need to be careful. The down side of going this route, is that since many people go on Hwy 5, some of the businesses have closed down. There used to be a lot more fruit stands and restaurants, and gas stations open on this route before Hwy 5 opened. There are still a couple of rest areas, on this route.

[Koastal Karl]

I havent been on the Fraser Canyon in years which is why I would like to take the route again. The Coqahalla is faster and you have a toll but I get tired of always taking either the Coqahalla or the Hope Princeton!

[WettCoast]

If you are into trains the Fraser/Thompson Canyon rules. Everday 60 + trains between CN & CP. The scenery is not bad either.

[Koastal Karl]

Back to the topic of this thread, it seems kind of silly to have a ferry for that short of a crossing. It is half the rivers width that thing. Why dont they just build a small one lane bridge or something??

[Mike C]

We have one like that too...

Glade Ferry

ROUTE: Across the Kootenay River on Highway 3A, 22.5 kilometres west of Nelson, to Glade.

DAILY SCHEDULE: On demand - 5:00 am - 2:30 am.

CROSSING TIME: 3 minutes

[Mike C]

Sorry for a double post, but look: the Bleriot Ferry is the shortest. But not by much.

www.highwayrules.com/alberta-ferries.htm

[Curtis]

I'm Surprised they would have a ferry that takes 30 seconds must be what makes it so intresting

[Koastal Karl]

I would say that is probably no more than a 1 min crossing! I sure hope you dont have to pay for that ferry!

[Mike C]

Looks pretty darn free.

Those albertian ferries are everywhere, all over that province. I'll have to see that I get on one or two in the next few years.

[Deleted]

The Bleriot Ferry ride was free, on the three different occasions I was on it. It's part of the Highway system.