Reesor Lake, Cypress Hills

Work took me past the Cypress Hills so I decided to stay the night in Elkwater (just southeast of Medicine Hat). There were two lakes I wanted to check out. The first was Reesor lake (which is a reservoir).



Reesor is southeast of the townsite and you you have to drive up to the top of the plateau and then back down. The road is paved all the way. I had pretty bad weather (driving up in the clouds with visibility of about 300 feet) but then things improved as the road dropped back down to the lake.

The picture above looks east down the lake from the first roadside pullout. You could get a boat in by the picnic table but the better access point is midway down the lake (below). There is a large gravel lot, washrooms, picnic tables, and a boat launch.

Boats with electric motors are allowed on the lake and there were two fishermen pulling out when I got there. there were also a lot of pelicans on the south side of the lake (breeding colony?)

The road continued to the east end of the lake. This end includes the dam and a turn-around spot. I think you could also get in here if you worked at it. The road turns to gravel and continued east towards Fort Walsh but looked wrecked in the raid (greasy clay base).

It was simply too cold to paddle (6 degrees on June 1 with drizzle) but I might go back if I were down here. There is also access to the spruce ponds off the same road, but, again, the road surface looks way to dodgy to try given how wet it was.