Narrow Lake

In early June, I drove up to Narrow Lake, just south of Athabasca. This lake is very close to Long Lake and the Forfar Recreation Area but is far less used. I was the only person on the lake while I was there.

The best (and, I think, only) access is on the east side . Google calls this the Narrow Lake Campground, but it is a day-use area. There are about a dozen picnic sites with tables and fire pits (bring your own wood), a pit toilet, garbage cans. There is also a dock and a small sandy boat launch and tiny beach area.

The water is crystal clear (you could see light-coloured tree trunks down 20 feet or more in the light) and I'd think this would be a good place to swim. The lake, as per its name, is narrow and runs SW-NE. It is about 8km around and took me 2.5 hours.

Basically you get aspen forest down to the waterline all the way around. There is a camp down at the south end with a beach-y area. And there is a reedy part in the north and south ends.

There was lots of evidence of beavers and there were also several pairs of loons.

More interestingly, I ran into an otter that huffed at me and tried to draw me away from its den. All of my photos of the otter were really grainy Loch Ness monster quality (sorry!).

Overall, this was a very nice lake to paddle. Super clean, easy access, no one about. Oh, there was also good cell reception on the lake but almost none in the day-use area.