Adventures for Wilderness, Ice, Glaciers, Gravel, and Oil – Sep. 23, 2023

September 23, 2023

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Photos: R. Luo

Led by Tako Koning

There was fog as we drove towards Cochrane, a thick blanket that covered the roads and hid the landscape. It shrouded the river valley as we wound along the gravel path, glimpses of the sloping valley walls just visible. On the south-facing slopes, tall trees could be seen, towering shapes in the gloom.

The fog was already beginning to lift as we reached a point overlooking the valley, although whiteness still obscured most of the landscape. Tako Koning, a retired geologist and leader of our trip, explained that the river valley had been carved out by glacial meltwater eroding the sandstone formation. The Paskapoo formation, a layer of sandstone where fossils can be found, was visible as outcroppings of rock, and as the sky cleared, we could see the steep cliffs and grasslands that made up the north-facing slopes.

Returning to the creek at the bottom of the valley, Gerry Bietz, president of the Bighill Creek Preservation Society, talked about their fight to preserve this river valley, a precious natural area surrounded by urban development and under continued pressure as Cochrane, Calgary and Airdrie expand. The water was clear, filtered through layers of earth and gravel, and remains consistently cool throughout the year, providing habitat for many freshwater fish and aquatic organisms.

From there we drove to see the gravel mines. The roads were already filled with gravel trucks, which could more than double as gravel mining expands, and we could already see the large trucks moving topsoil at the newly approved Mountain Ash gravel mine. At one of our stops, a former ranch that could be converted into gravel mining, Tako and Gerry talked about how the loss of gravel could threaten Bighill springs. We continued to other stops, including several fracking pads for oil and gas, a quiet ranch with distinctive sandstone hoodoos, and a beautiful wetland reserve. By this time, the skies were clear, the sun was shining, and we headed home with new knowledge of the Cochrane North geology.