the
Clearwater
River


Wild and remote, the Clearwater River flows 295 kilometres from its headwaters at Broach Lake in northern Saskatchewan to its confluence with the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray, Alberta. 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. Though it originally heads southeast, the Clearwater makes a sharp turn to the west, halfway along its Saskatchewan course. It is this abrupt change of direction that defined the river's legendary role in the development of the western fur trade. For an entire century, an army of voyageurs, traders, explorers and adventurers followed the Methye Portage across the continental divide to the westward-flowing Clearwater and its link with the Arctic waterways. Today, in the unspoiled lands of the Dene people, the traffic of trade has subsided, but the spectacular beauty and natural abundance of this Canadian Heritage River remains, a delight to canoeists, rafters, naturalists and eco-tourists seeking a genuine wilderness experience.