Brightsand Lake, SK

In mid-June, we stopped at Brightsand Lake in western Saskatchewan on our way to Prince Albert National Park. The best access we could find was through Brightsand Lake Regional Park on the north end which had a $10 day-use fee. We came at the park from St. Walburg in the west and left going south past Turtle Lake. The St. Walburg approach had better roads. 

The park is nice, with a large campground, showers, flush toilets on the beach (!!) and a burger shack. There is a proper boat launch available but we just went off the main beach, which was easy and lovely. The carry was maybe 20m over soft sand and it was a very easy and gentle entry.

The water was clear and clean and the bottom was sandy and this would be a good option for swimming and SUP. It was very cloudy the day we were there and the pictures don't really do the lake justice.

We went left (east) off the beach and paddled for about half an hour before turning back and the paddling west past the beach a bit before returning and pulling out (maybe 90 minutes and 6km). The lake is pretty big (maybe 14km by 6km?) and open so it would likely not be great on a windy day!

There were lots of birds and we could also see the bottom most of the way. The water had a lovely greedy-blue colour the few times the sun came out.

 

This is the boat launch, just a little west of the beach:

There is probably half a km of beautiful sand on the beach, a playground for the kids, and some kind of net (badminton or beach volleyball) rigged up. This would be a great place to camp with kids.

It looks like there are boat rentals here with two canoes chained up on the beach. One of them looked pretty beat up and you'd be better of bringing you own boat!

Check out the bowing of the keel!

Overall, this was a great paddle despite the clouds, wind, and showers. Another lovely, sandy Saskatchewan beach. I would definitely come back and I wish there were nice accommodations closer than Lloydminster.