Blackstrap Lake

Blackstrap Lake is located about 30 minutes south of Saskatoon on Highway 11. On the east side of the lake is Blackstrap Lake Provincial Park. The narrow lake was created in 1967 and is about 14km long. It is bisected by a causeway, but there is a boat pass through to get between the halves.

The public boat launch is located south of Blackstrap Ski Hill (pictured below), in the provincial park. You can also launch off the public beach, if you don’t mind a 200-foot carry from the parking lot in the Aspen Grove picnic area.

The lake is fairly warm, weedy and was full of green algae when we were there. There was enough algae that a fish kill was occurring, which made the already smelly lake rather odiferous. There isn’t all that much to see (although we did see pelicans and a large number of fowl and other birds). All told, not a lake we’d go back to.

There are few services in the park or the surrounding area. The gas station/grocery store/subway/motel in Dundurn is about the only place to buy food or fuel without going back to Saskatoon.

It may also be possible to canoe into Indi Lake (via a river) from the south end of Blackstrap Lake, but we didn’t get that far on this trip. Based on google maps, I would say you’d end up portaging 2km, incuding crossing a divided highway!