Birch Lake

In early July, we stopped in at Birch Lake on the first leg of a trip to Prince Albert National Park. Birch Lake is located about 90 minutes east of Edmonton on Highway 16, just south of Innisfree. If you pull off at the PetroCanada station way up on the hill, the lake you are overlooking to the south is Birch Lake.

Access is off Highway 870 at the ball diamonds and recreation park. Drive into the main parking area and there is a wagon on the south side behind a fence.

Access is through the western most gate (it is chained but not locked). There is an old, overgrown cement boat launch here that leads down to the water. You can park right at the gate.

The lagoon offered a sheltered launch.

The lake was a touch grotty at the very edge but we managed to get in and out with out feet dry.

The lake itself is enormous. We just paddled the northern part, around the island, and down the eastern shore some. You could spent a whole day paddling the perimeter.

Best access to the island is on the NE shore. There is apparently hiking trail to the top of the hill as well as a fire pit. The island is also supposed to have interesting quartz and other deposits.

The hill (shot from the western side) is huge.

We went ashore on the SE corner in a bay. This was fairly mucky and did not lead to any trails. We did see a deer, though. And some large hoof prints (moose?).

The sky was lovely; I wish we'd had more time to paddle. We saw more deer on the shoreline.

I'd always wanted to paddle the lake as a kid, which looked like a lovely break from the backseat of a hot station wagon, Not sure you'd want to swim this at all--dark water with some serious weeds in places. But a fun lake to check off my list. To the west, you can also paddle the much smaller Waspasu Lake but we did not get over there.