Clearwater River

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The Clearwater River flows southeast from its headwaters at Broach Lake in northern Saskatchewan. It then takes an abrupt westward turn at Careen Lake, heading across the Saskatchewan-Alberta border and ending in Fort McMurray at its confluence with the Athabasca River.

Its upper banks are raw and rugged, towering over a narrow streambed punctuated with boulder strewn rapids, rocky ledges and dramatic waterfalls. Downstream, the river calms and widens, as it leaves the Precambrian Shield on its way to the Interior Plains.

Clearwater is a renowned canoe river.

Directions to Clearwater River (canoe access)

There are several popular put-in and take-out points on the river:

• Canoeists wishing to paddle most the river usually begin at Gibson Bay at the eastern end of Lloyd Lake, just south of the river's headwaters. Access is by floatplane, and a full-length trip to Fort McMurray will take anywhere from 12 to 21 days.
• Floatplane access is available further down the river, where the Virgin River joins the Clearwater at Careen Lake.
• The river can be reached by road, where Highway 955 to Cluff Lake crosses the river at Warner Rapids, about 65 kilometres northeast of the community of La Loche.
• Floatplane access is available at the Clearwater side of the historic Meythe Portage, 20 kilometres the northern end of Lac La Loche.
• For those not wishing to continue all the way to Fort McMurray, there is a take-out with floatplane access at White Mud Falls, just across the Alberta border.

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Methye Portage Trail

Though it originally heads southeast, the Clearwater makes a sharp turn to the west, halfway along its Saskatchewan course. Here you’ll find the historic Methye Portage Trail.

Another attraction on the river is the Clearwater River Pictographs.

Moose

Late summer rafters and canoeists often have an opportunity to see moose that appear on the river's banks can be viewed in their red-coated, velvet-antlered glory.

Even if they are already familiar with this quintessentially Canadian mammal, river travellers may be startled by the massiveness of the Clearwater variety. With its huge head, long, broad snout, bulky bodies, lanky legs and short, stubby tail, the moose is by far the largest of the deer family. Bulls may weigh up to 750 kilograms and stand 2 metres high, while cows will be of similar height but somewhat lighter in weight.

The adult moose that appears on the Clearwater in mid-August will have shed its faded, grayish winter coat in favour of a new, short, dark brown hide that has gradually turned a rich, reddish-brown and black. It will be mid-September before its heavy undercoat of wool and coarse guard hairs thickens in anticipation of colder temperatures.

The white, shovel-shaped antlers ("rack") of the mature Bull Moose will have reached their full size by summer's end, and will be covered in a velvety coating of skin and hair. (In just a few more weeks, the blood supply to the antlers will be cut off, and the velvet will begin to shed. The moose will scrape continuously against trees and bushes until all the velvet is gone. The antlers will eventually darken and fall off during the winter season.)

Moose cows will not have any antlers at all, but both sexes will sport a characteristic "bell" below their throats. This hanging flap of skin can grow as long as 25 centimetres in males and plays an important role in transferring scent from bulls to cows during "chinning" behaviour. As a means of sensory perception, the bell compensates for the moose's relatively poor eyesight.