Waskesiu River, Prince Albert National Park, SK

In mid-June, we took a trip to Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan. We've been here before and were looking forward to coming back, this time slightly ahead of the summer crowds. The wildfires to the north of the park caused a bunch of closures in the park, which altered our paddle plans some. Our first day there, we paddled the first bit of the Waskesiu River, from the marina to the bridge.

Before you can paddle in the park (this year), you need to have your boat inspected and cleaned (if your boat has been out of province in the last 45 days). This requires an appointment booked head of time and a quick hot-water wash to kill zebra mussels. No big deal and the staff were great.

The marina has lots of parking and four boat ramps with docks as well as a sandy launch to the right in the photo above. There is normally a fee to launch but not for paddlers.

It was a bit stormy the day we paddled so the photos are a bit dreary. It was nice in person! We went left (east) off the launch and over to the mouth of the river.

There were lots of pelicans and we got chewed out by a very angry loon.

The river is basically what you see below: reeds giving way to a mostly fir forest. There is a current, but barely, so you can float downstream if you want. It was a very easy paddle back upstream when we were done.

We saw lots of birds but no big animals (we did see a bear on the road in, though, and lots of elk and deer at other times).

The float eventually ends at the bridge. You can carry past the plastic floats, stone dam, and footbridge  (maybe 100m) and continue on to the highway if you want. This would be a long paddle and you'd be in and out of your boat a lot carrying over low spots, based on what we saw when we hiked downstream of the bridge the next day.

We turned around and paddled back. There were eagles and osprey overhead, pelicans, lots of ducks with babies, and a big beaver lodge.

This was about a 4km round trip with no power boats anywhere around us and took maybe an hour and a bit (we went slow, enjoying the float).

Happily, the weather improved for the rest of the trip!

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.

Vermilion Park Lake

In mid-June, we headed to Saskatchewan and stopped at Vermilion along the way to paddle Vermilion Park Lake, just on the north end of town. Entry is through the Vermilion Provincial Park. There is camping available, the google reviews of the campground are either "amazing!!" or "gopher city!!"

When you enter the park, you generally stay to the right, go past the gate and old rail station, drop down to the water on a gravel road, and there you are. You can park at the pink arrow and put in at the red arrow. There are also docks (green arrow) if that is your jam; we didn't walk over to see what they were like. There were pit toilets by the parking area as well as a few picnic tables.

You could likely drive pretty close to the water to drop and then go back to park. We just carried the boats about 100m from the parking lot to the tiny little beach. The launch was easy and we turned left (northwest) to paddle into the wind.

The lake is a reservoir created by damming the Vermilion river and filing the coulee. The lake is shaped like a boomerang. The west leg runs east-west while the east leg (where you put in) runs northwest-southeast and contains the dam. The north shore is pretty open while the south shore is a treed park with a walking trail along the shore.

The water was pretty dark and had lots of algae (not the bad kind). Between the water and the potential for wind, it might not be ideal for SUPs, depending on your tolerance for wind and yuck.

We had a good start to the paddle, heading 2km NW around the bend and then west.

We saw no one on the water and a few folks hiking the trail. There was an interesting bird blind (behind wife in picture below) and lots of birds.

The south shoreline is pretty steep in places and would be tricky to get out on.

We were annoying some ducks when the wind suddenly picked up from the west and some serious clouds blew in (it was a very unsettled day, weather-wise).

We decided to turn around and try to beat the rain back to the launch. The wind definitely helped out speed.

We made it back just as the rain started and then immediately stopped! Then there was a birthday party and squirt-gun fight to navigate as we got out and carried back to the truck.

Overall, this was an okay paddle. A nicer day and some more time would have seen us go up to the in-flow of the Vermilion river at the west end of the lake (probably at two-hour round trip). I probably wouldn't make a special trip to come back here, but I might stop in again if I was on my way to the Whitney Provincial Parks to the northwest.

Steele Lake, Cross Lake Provincial Park

In early June, we trucked about 90 minutes NW of town to Cross Lake Provincial Park to paddle Steele Lake. The last 10km of the drive are on gravel and the park has a good set of amenities, including a boat launch and dock, a nice beach, pit toilets, picnic tables, and fire pits. There is also a campground.

You can drop right beside the water and park 30m away. It was slightly smoky when we got there but that soon blew off. There was also a small rim of algae on the edge in places (not the bad kind).

With the wind coming from the south, we turned right off the beach and paddled into it, thinking we'd explore the bay in the SW corner of the lake and then work out way east to a creek mouth. The last time we were here, we went north (left) and scoped out the NW corner.

The SW corner is mostly swamp or muskeg, with the trees fairly far back from the water. There were lots of fish and birds but to much else of note.

As we worked our way along the shore, there were a few higher spots with trees closer to the water.

The highlight was probably spotting this loon sitting on a nest hoping the annoying people would just move on (super zoomed in, apologies for the pixellation).

As we started east towards the creek, we bravely rescued a sand shovel that had floated off the beach!

We got to about here (maybe 6km of paddling) and ran into the hugest fish fly hatch I've ever seen. There was no wind and they were so thick my wife said I looked like Pigpen from Charlie Brown.

At that point, we paddled out into the middle the lake to find a breeze and finally get rid of them. Instead of eating lunch on the water, we decided to just paddle back and eat on the beach.

Overall, a pretty nice paddle. Lots of people fishing, both from shore and out of boats. We did about 7km in two-ish hours and had a nice time. The NW corner of the lake was nicer to paddle than the SW. I'd like to get over into the eastern end of the lake sometime.