Ghost River "mystery"

[wheels]

For the past few years, I've been dying to go check out the "mystery" from Barry Mitchell's Alberta's Trout Highway book, and today a buddy and I took his 4x4 truck and finally did it. For those who aren't familiar, in his book in the section for the Ghost River, he talks about driving the TransAlta road west from highway 40, and going down a "big hill", then he goes on to say:

If you enjoy a good mystery, turn left at the bottom of the hill and follow the track across the floodplain. If you go far enough, you'll find something that blew me away. If you go a little farther and pay attention, you’ll come to some big gravel cliffs on the riverbank. Park here and fish your way upstream to the “waterfall.” If that doesn't make you scratch your head in wonder, nothing will. Have fun.

 

We found the "big hill" and we turned left and basically drove down every track we could find until we hit dead ends. We didn't come across anything that "blew us away", but we're pretty sure we found the gravel cliffs he was referring to. We followed the river upstream to what we think was the "waterfall", which is basically just a bridge-type structure that has two large steel tubes to control the flow of water. It was a little bit of a mystery what exactly it was there for, but certainly not to the level I was hoping based on Barry's description. My thoughts are that either: A - We didn't find what he was referring to in his book; B - Whatever he was referring to is no longer there; or C - We found what he was talking about, we were just less baffled than he was.

 

Has anyone else tried to uncover this "mystery" before? Or does anyone know that area well enough to say what he might be referring to?

 

As an aside, we drove to the end of the TransAlta road heading right at the bottom of the "big hill" and fished the river upstream from there for a couple hours. We didn't see a single fish, but we found lots of good-looking pools.

[kphebert]

i dont know anything about the mystery but had the same experance with the fishing.some really nice holes but not a single fish.the only thing we could think for a reason was the freezing water being too cold to support a large insect population and the fish not staying there for lack of food.

[kphebert]

i dont know anything about the mystery but had the same experance with the fishing.some really nice holes but not a single fish.the only thing we could think for a reason was the freezing water being too cold to support a large insect population and the fish not staying there for lack of food.

[Avalanche]

 

 

Doesn't that lead into the back end of Minnewanka? Years back a buddy and I would park where the Trans Alta road crossed the river and fish the beaver dams upstream. Lotsa Brookies. Mmmm...them's good eatin'

 

[wheels]

Doesn't that lead into the back end of Minnewanka? Years back a buddy and I would park where the Trans Alta road crossed the river and fish the beaver dams upstream. Lotsa Brookies. Mmmm...them's good eatin'

 

Yep, same area. We tried fishing where it heads toward Minnewanka and where the road crosses the river and not a fish in sight. Might just be the time of year.

[Taco]

Is that the disappearing fork of the Ghost (the dry fork)? Only runs in higher water flows, the rest of the time disappears underground, pops up here and there in the water course, never any fish in it that I recall.

[beedhead]

An old friend and I explored that whole area in my 4x4 couple years back.... Was truly epic country and adventure.... We never spotted any fish either..... We made it to the spot where it says no more vehicles beyond this point.... According to a map we were fairly close to the narrows of Lake Minnewnka.... We did however meet a few ice/rock climbers they mentioned it is one of the best places around to climb.... I might be able to find some pics, and post them...

 

Cheers...Jeff..

 

Found some pics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wheels]

Is that the disappearing fork of the Ghost (the dry fork)? Only runs in higher water flows, the rest of the time disappears underground, pops up here and there in the water course, never any fish in it that I recall.

 

Yes, they've set up a diversion that moves the flow of the river more to the west to connect with Lake Minnewanka, and the primary fork is dry most of the year other than during runoff. The enormity of the dry "floodplain" of the primary fork is pretty neat to see.

[duanec]

Yes, they've set up a diversion that moves the flow of the river more to the west to connect with Lake Minnewanka, and the primary fork is dry most of the year other than during runoff. The enormity of the dry "floodplain" of the primary fork is pretty neat to see.

correct.

the 'dry floodplain' can also suddenly become a very active river during a rain or storm event. the river is not far below the surface...there have been occasions where people have become stranded.

the other structure mentioned is a 'throttle' that limits the amount of diverted water that can flow into minnewanka during runoff or a storm, redirecting the overflow down the old channel.

[upperbowtrekker]

If anyone wants more info on the area please PM me. I have worked, hunted, and rock/ice climbed extensively in the Ghost.

[ironfly]

That book, great as it is, is pretty out of date. Same with his annual fishing guide. In my opinion, every specific reference to a fishing spot from Barry Mitchell must be taken with a grain of salt. That might be a good thing, because you get some really good tips, but there's still an element of exploration.