Blown Away by the Sheep River

There is a certain sense of adventure that comes with nearly everything we do in our first year in Alberta.  There has certainly not been a shortage of activities and adventures that have been recommended by friends and followers particularly where fishing is concerned.  A good friend suggested that the Sheep River canyon would be an amazing location for us to fish and explore the beauty of Alberta … so without much prodding off we went!

The trip west had us travelling out of Calgary along the  22X until we got to Turner Valley and continued west on the 546.  Like many of the rivers that run eastward from the mountains, the Sheep River was well contained within bedrock walls combined with a mix of forest and flat grass lands on the top that made it difficult to actually get a glimpse at the river.  Fortunately for us so the scenery was spectacular and we were even lucky enough to encounter a small gathering of sheep grazing contentedly.

Travelling along the north side of the Sheep we continued west until, as our directions instructed, we turned off  at the Gorge Creek confluence and found a spot to park.  As we were travelling there were times when we could feel the wind push at the truck but it certainly didn’t prepare us for the battering we would take as soon as we got out of the truck.  In a word WINDY.  Immediately we knew that fishing might be a futile effort but being committed or “committable” we strung our rods and slid into our waders.  We accessed the Sheep River by walking down the gravel strewn outwash from Gorge Creek.  We walked upstream and explored the narrow stream channel pinched at the base of steep canyon walls hoping to escape the worst of the winds. Well we managed to escape only about a tenth of the wind and not surprisingly, we were unable to find any hungry trout despite the bugs in the wind.

Turning our attention downstream after a time … we walked and waded and climbed our way downstream, “encouraged” by the gale force winds pushing us forward.  Being too windy to cast any more we it was decided to test out our new camera and record some footage and a few pictures.

We are excited to share the first videos ever recorded on our DSLR.  Amazingly enough were were also able to capture some very candid wildlife interaction …. trust me … you want to watch to the end.