Sandy Lake

A tip from a fellow on the Facebook took me to Sandy Lake, which is about 40 minutes NW of Edmonton by the Alexander First Nation. The best access is from the east on Highway 642 (which takes off from Morinville at the Highway 2 overpass). We came up from Highway 16, but ran into Covid road blocks on some of the secondary north-south roads.

I've looked at Sandy Lake a couple of times but could never sort out the access. There is a boat launch immediately west of the bridge on the south side with good parking. The launch itself is pretty interesting and this is not a first-date lake! It is about a 50-foot carry from the parking lot to the water but the water is a muddy path out through the weeds. We had to bum scoot, then pole, then paddle to get going.

The weedy channel was actually pretty cool, with lots of yellow-headed blackbirds and water fowl. Once we got clear, the lake was nice. The water is about the colour of iced tea. Between that and the launch, this is probably not a SUP destination. I also wonder about getting a canoe out of the launch with a slightly deeper draw.

We had a lovely paddle. There are clusters of cabins along the shore and lots of birds with young.

The lake south of the bridge is about 1-2km wide (depending on where) and maybe 4.5 km long? We went about half way down. No boats, glassy smooth, incredible sun, huge skies. Forest is most deciduous so might be pretty in autumn. I'd say the lake is pretty shallow (<10 feet) and would be pretty weedy in late summer (edges were already weeding up).

We saw ruddy ducks (blue bills are cool) and grebes with babies on their backs. Also geese, mallards, maybe a loon, a huge heron, and some wood ducks. 

The return to the launch was nice and getting out was way less muddy than I expected (basically managed to shuffle up on some grass and step out dry footed).

I don't think it is possible to get to the northern part of the lake (under the bridge). As far as I could tell, there were no services or public washrooms in town except maybe a general store. There was a park and picnic site on the east side of the bridge on the north side of the highway.