Features

South Ghost Features

The South Ghost area consists of both alpine and subalpine subregions.
The area includes minimal industrial development due in part to the fact that there are no coal bodies in the area. Generally speaking, the region has low potential for commercial production.
Once pristine and untouched, the South Ghost is now a popular recreational area.

Township and Range map: JPG | PDF

Natural Subregions map: JPG | PDF

The South Ghost is located within the South Saskatchewan River watershed and the Bow River Basin.
This area is significant because it provides water for more than a million Albertans.
As a result of the porous limestone rock underlying much of the area, the South Ghost River disappears at various points along its bed, seeping into faults to flow underground. Only in the spring, when snowmelt is at its highest, does the South Ghost River flow above ground its entire length.
At the place where the South Ghost River joins the Ghost River, the South Ghost seeps underground into a braided bed of gravel known as the “Dry Fork.”

In its 1997 report on the Environmentally Significant Areas of Alberta, the Alberta government designated the majority of the South Ghost as a nationally significant area, with the remainder defined as provincially and regionally significant areas. The 2009 redrawing of the Environmentally Significant Areas left the South Ghost divided between nationally and provincially significant areas.

Environmentally Significant
Areas map: JPG | PDF

Severe winds and a harsh climate constrain vegetation in the South Ghost.
In the summer time, winds often blow out the thin, shallow soil and vegetation.
In the winter, Chinook winds melt the snow and expose vegetation to the elements.
Due to severe weather, few common eastern slopes species inhabit the South Ghost area.

Several distinct vegetation zones exist in the South Ghost. The subalpine forest zone occurs at altitudes lower than 7,000 feet (2,134 metres) and alpine tundra zone occurs above 7,500 feet (2,286 metres). Between these two zones lies an area characterized by small, gnarled trees knows as the krummholz, or elfin woodland.
The subalpine forest is dominated by coniferous trees, including spruce (both white or Engelmann), subalpine fir and lodgepole pine. Scattered aspen, balsam, poplar and paper birch trees grow at lower elevations.
Forests of entirely lodgepole pine indicate that the area has been burned, because these trees are the first to grow back in newly burned locations. Lodgepole pine forests are generally open and have an understory of grasses and bearberry, recognized by its cone-shaped flowers and red berries.
The understory in spruce-fir forests is moister than in pine forests and contains characteristic plants like twin flower, bunchberry and feathermosses.
Although the growing season is short, when proper conditions exist, the alpine tundra is carpeted by lush meadows of grasses and sedges. Common plants include yellow flowered glacier lilies, buttercups and cinquefoil. In addition, crustose lichen grows on rocks abundant in the alpine tundra zone.

Though present, little suitable low elevation habitat results in limited numbers of moose, elk, deer, mountain lion, wolf, grizzly and black bear.
Instead, the area is home to healthy mountain goat and sheep populations.
Bird population in the South Ghost area is estimated at 100-120 species, including the gray jay (whiskey jack), spruce grouse, blue grouse, waxwing, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, pine siskin, rufous hummingbird, golden eagle, mountain blue bird, white tailed ptarmigan, horned lark, rosy finch, water pipit, the goldeneye, dipper, spotted sandpiper, solitary sandpiper and Clarke’s Nutcracker.
Butterflies are common in the meadows of the alpine tundra zone, including the red and white admiral, silvery blue, tortoiseshell, fritillary, checkerspot and sulphur butterflies.
Few fish are found in waterways due to the steep grade and fluctuating water levels.
Rodents like the pika, marmot, squirrel (golden mantled, red, and northern flying squirrel), porcupine and chipmunk are common in the South Ghost.

First Nation’s peoples may have arrived in this location more than 10,000 years ago, though human activity has been somewhat limited by the lack of any major watercourse in the area.
Pictographs can be found some of the cave walls in the Wildlands.
The Bow Valley to the south of the South Ghost was a major transportation route used by explorers. However, there was little reason to travel directly through the South Ghost itself.
Early explorers in the area include Duncan McGillivray, nephew and assistant to David Thompson in 1800, as well as botanist Eugene Bourgeau and geologist Dr. James Hector from the Palliser expedition in 1858.
The South Ghost area has mystical significance and is said to be haunted.
The name “Ghost,” first recorded by Dr. Hector of the Palliser expedition, originates from a Stoney legend in which ghosts were seen along the river picking up skulls of warriors killed in battle against the Cree.

This impressive mountain range is the result of slippage and thrusting along a major fault (the McConnell Thrust Fault), which occurred about 65 million years ago.
During this time, old and previously buried Cambrian rocks (600 million years old) were thrust eastward over Mississippian carbonate sedimentary rock (450 million years old) and over Cretaceous sandstones (130 million years old).
The Rundle Group, represented in this central part of the Rocky Mountains, has two main sequences: the Livingstone Formation and the overlying Mount Head Formation. South of the Waiparous River, the Etherington Formation caps this group; north of the river it has been largely removed by erosion.
The Etherington Formation extends from Brazeau River south, thickening gradually southward and westward to about 300 m in the Kananaskis area, where it is best exposed. It is composed of shallow marine dolomite and limestone (often sandy and easily weathered and eroded) and highly muddy shallow water red and green shale. The Etherington is the last major carbonate interval to be deposited in the central and southern Rocky Mountains.