Three hundred and fifty-five megawatts and thirteen kilometres of reservoir in the bush
Southwest of Drayton Valley the Brazeau River was dammed where the Elk River comes in, built between about 1960 and 1963, and the first unit put 355 megawatts onto the system in 1965. It is still the largest hydroelectric plant TransAlta owns and it makes an average of 397,000 megawatt-hours a year. The reservoir behind it runs 13 kilometres long and up to 6 wide, with a provincial recreation area upstream of the dam and three more campgrounds around the shore. This is bush country and it fishes and boats like it: the drive in is gravel for a good stretch, and the water level moves with the power demand, so read the shoreline before you launch anything.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
