Devil's Lake

In late September, I dragged the kid out to Devil's Lake (Matchayaw Lake) northwest of Edmonton. The fall colours were beautiful but it was quite overcast so the colours don't show in the photos very well.

Access is off Highway 37 near Onoway, east on township road 550. Go past the Jehovah's Witness hall, over the bridge and it is on the right. There is a decent sized parking lot, you can unload at the water's edge, and there is a pit toilet.

The boat launch itself is a nice bed of gravel and the entry was really clean. The water had a bit of algae to it but was fine.

We paddled along the north shore over to where the Sturgeon river outflow is under the bridge.

The river was shallow but navigable and we paddled about a km towards St. Albert and saw lots of waterfowl and heron.

We then returned to the lake and did most of the west shore before cutting across the southern end back to the launch.

The water was like glass for us, which was amazing. The land is pretty open to the west towards Onoway, so I would imagine the lake would get a bit rough if there was much breeze.

There was also a lot of gun fire while we were on the water. I don't know if people were shooting birds (sounded like shotguns) or if there is a gun range nearby.

I'd love to go back on a clearer day; this was a much nicer paddle than I had expected.