Trip Report – Red Deer River June 5-7, 2026

Steveville to Jenner Exhibition Grounds

We met at Dinosaur Provincial Park on the Friday, trickling in over several hours. There were 11 of us – Donna M, Stephanie J, Rob R, Frank G, Jim F, Alan S, Peter S, Siobhan M, Christine O, John B, and Eric F. 9 kayaks and one tandem canoe. Oh, and Bentley the dog!

Saturday morning we shuttled the cars to Jenner and launched about 11:30 am, into a VERY high Red Deer River. It was running around 150 cms at Drumheller and was up into the willows all along the shore. This meant for very limited put in and take out possibilities, plus a LOT of very slippery mud! It did give us some nice speed though; we averaged about 7 km/hour without working very hard!

The river is spectacular through this stretch of the park, wonderful colours and shapes in the hills! We stopped on a hill for lunch, and again for a snack, finding the takeout about 6:00 pm along with much mud. Various among the group saw a cow moose with her calf, pronghorn antelope, and deer, although I only saw the deer! After driving back to the campground, we hung stuff to dry and settled in for supper around a campfire.

Pic 4

The day was beautiful with scattered cloud and not too hot or cold. We saw a few moments of wind, but mostly it was wonderfully calm!

Sunday held a threat of rain, but it held off for our paddle. Firstly we shuttled all the gear up to Steveville. The put in is best through the Steveville campground, it’s about a 50 m walk through the trees to the water but it’s flat. The previous put in on the south east side of the bridge is very steep, and not really useable at the high water levels we experienced. There were some challenges launching under the bridge, after experimenting on Stephanie and Rob we settled on loading the boats fully on shore and then pushing them down the hill into the river.

Thank God for canoeists, who were able to launch themselves after helping all us kayakers! We ended up launching at 12:30, what with relocating the put in and watching Rob swim. It was only a 14 km paddle and we completed it without stopping (we tried, but couldn’t find a way off the river), and were back to Dinosaur campground by 2:30 pm.

Most folks headed for home and Alan, Frank and I stayed for Sunday night. We got treated to a massive windstorm, rain, sunshine, and some calm periods, and ended up going to bed early. Monday we toured the fabulous Interpretive Center, and then headed for home!

Donna McKenzie