Castor Creek (Parr Reservoir) and Big Knife Provincial Park

In late June, I detoured on a trip to Calgary to the east of Red Deer and visited Castor Creek. The creek was dammed in the 1940s to create Parr Reservoir in what was once a coulee. The resulting "lake" is about 3.5km long and maybe 20m wide (this varies). Because it is down below the level of the surrounding land, there isn't much wind but there are a lot of interesting sandstone cliffs. 

Access is in the town of Castor (green arrow above). There is a parking lot and proper boat launch, with a concrete ramp and two docks. There are also picnic tables, what was once a small sandy beach, and a hellsketchy change room and toilet (maybe the worst I've been in a couple of years). The water was dark but smelled okay. You could definitely SUP but I would not want to swim here.

There was no one there the day I went (mid-day on a Tuesday in late June) but the north part of the lake is used for waterskiing. I went left (north) off the dock and paddled to the outflow and back in about 80 minutes (at a slow pace). The pictures below are basically representative. There are some steep hills with rosebushes, a few bullrushes along the shore, and then some cliff faces.

There are lots of swallows nesting on the sandstone and some of the cliffs show exposed coal seams.

The far northwest corner has the outflow which is just a giant hole the water flows into (blocked off by these posts). This was the only part of the creek with any noticeable current.

As I came around the last corner, I saw a lifejacket floating in the water (fortunately empty).

The paddle back to the boat ramp was fairly uneventful. There were lots of cormorants, ducks, red-winded black birds, and I heard (but could not spot) an owl.

Back at the launch, I paddled south under the bridge. Here, the creek narrows some and I would say this was the more interesting paddle, with more varied cliffs and more birds. I ran out of road at the next bridge because beavers had dammed the creek. It was only a one-foot height difference but that was enough to turn me back. You could, certainly, get past this if you were keen.

More cliffs and some of the swallow nests built into them. These nests were everywhere.

The whole paddle lasted about two hours and was definitely interesting. Whomever did the facebook advertising that got pushed into my feed certainly did good job showing off the best parts of this paddle! I'm not sure it was worth a 2.5 hour drive, but I also got to stop at Big Knife Provincial Park (about 45km NW of Castor) and you could easily make this a two-fer or an overnighter, if you camp.

Big Knife Provincial Park

Big Knife PP is located 3km west of Highway 855, between Heisler and Halkirk on the south bank of the Battle River. There is a campground here along with a day-use area and boat launch.

The launch has a cement ramp and you can drop your boat right beside the water. Parking and washrooms are a little ways off.

The Battle River is pretty slow and meandering so there is lots of opportunity to paddle here and bird watch. The water wasn't too gross although there was a bit of goop right at the launch.

I shot the two photos below from a small hill about halfway between the highway and the park to give you a sense of the topography. Basically a winding river with lots of oxbows.

I think this would be an okay place to paddle, but I didn't have time to put in and check it out.