Crimson Lake

In July, we drove back from Banff along Highway 22 and stopped in at Crimson Lake near Rocky Mountain House. The lake is located in a provincial park with a campground, store, public beach, and boat launch.

We were there on a Saturday and the place was very busy by lunch time. We chose to launch at the boat launch since you could drive right up to the lake. There was a dock, ramp and also a "sandy" beach (that is actually signed as a mud pit). Parking is in a lot maybe 3 minutes walk from the launch.

The lake is about 1 km in diameter and maybe 5 or 6 km around. There is a walking/cycling trail around the lake that runs about 10km. The lake edge basically looks like the photo above: reeds that give way to boreal forest.

There is a modest island in the centre of the lake. The only real aces point we could find was on the NW side of the island but it was busy so we didn't stop to explore. The lake is quite shallow (you can see the sandy bottom in most places) and warm.

The public beach is very popular (being close to town). The picture above shows about half of the beach. There were 20+ kayaks, paddle boards, and floaties near the shore. There were also motorized boats out fishing and tubing in the middle of the lake.