The road to the waypoint

The drive

The route above was found by the program in OpenStreetMap, preferring better roads. It matches the directions published by the Municipal District of Greenview almost to the hundred metres: 8.1 km north on Highway 40, 30 km along Beaverdam Road to the Caw Ridge turnoff on the left, then 8.1 km up the old road to the top.

On from the waypoint to the ridge

The old road leaves the gravel at your waypoint and climbs 717 m in 8.1 km to the ridge top at about 2,002 m. It is an old mining exploration road, not maintained: eroded, with long cobble sections. Treat it as a route for an off-highway vehicle, a horse or your feet, not for a truck. From where the mapped track ends it is 0.6 km over open alpine to the ridge point.

What riders report

None of what follows is official, and the newest of it is from 2023. It comes from public forum threads by people who have made the trip on quads and side-by-sides.

• Beaverdam Road is rough in a pickup and better suited to small trailers than large ones.
• The highway to the ridge top is just shy of 50 km.
• Staging areas are reported at the mine flats by the Smoky River off Highway 40, at Gustavs Flats, and at the Caw Ridge turnoff itself.
• Old exploration roads run along most of the ridge line once you are up. A loop is described that descends to the south past an open pit and meets Beaverdam Road about 8 km east of the turnoff.
• Sheep Creek Road, further north, is a better kept oilfield road but was reported gated to highway vehicles at kilometre 13, and signed against off-highway vehicles.
• Snow closed the top to riders in late May 2008 and again in June 2013. In autumn the same drifts arrive early.
• Fresh grizzly tracks are reported regularly along the access.

Distances

Camping

Random camping is allowed on public land for up to 14 days in one place: keep 30 m back from water, and stay at least 1 km from a provincial park or recreation area. A Public Lands Camping Pass is required along the eastern slopes ($20 for three days or $30 for the year, per person); the official map appears to take in the land west of Highway 40 here, so buy one.

Last services

Grande Cache has fuel (Fas Gas and Petro-Canada), a supermarket, hotels and motels, a hospital with a 24 hour emergency department, and an RCMP detachment. There is nothing past the Beaverdam Road turnoff: no fuel, no water you have not treated, no help you have not arranged. Fill the tank and the jerry cans in town.

Whose land

The ridge is provincial Crown land in the Green Area, within the Municipal District of Greenview and Treaty 8 territory. It is not a park. Two protected areas lie close: Willmore Wilderness Park about 8 km to the south-west, where hunting is allowed but no motor vehicle may go, and Kakwa Wildland Provincial Park about 12 km to the west.

The Aseniwuche Winewak Nation and the Mountain Métis have lived in this country for generations. The Nation's cooperatives and enterprises (Victor Lake, Susa Creek, Muskeg Seepee, Wanyandie Flats, Grande Cache Lake and Joachim) hold parcels along Highway 40. Treat them as private occupied land and ask before entering. Treaty and Métis harvesters may lawfully be hunting at times and under rules that differ from yours.