Nakamun Lake

In mid-July, I drove up to Nakamun Lake, hoping the water was still good. The last time I was here (2020?), there was an algae bloom underway. Happy, the water looked okay. The easiest access is on the south shore from the park in the middle of the Summer Village of Nakamun Park.

There is good parking here and benches to sit on but no washrooms. You can drive your boat to the end of the spit where the launch is. There wasn't really a viable beach launch here.

The launch has a metal grate for a deck. I've never seen one like this before. The grate in the water was very slippy. Getting in was okay. I used one of the guide rails on the side for balance getting out. The south shore is built up and basically is this, with a lot of weeds close to shore.

I went west off the launch. In the west end, there is a treed island with lots of birds.

You can skirt around the western side of the island, but the channel is shallow, narrow, and weedy.

The western and north shores mostly look like this: weed bed, thin set of bullrushes, then a steep bank up into an aspen forest.

On the north shore of Camp Nakamun.

In the eastern end, there is a cute little island with a beaver lodge and lots of nettle. Then a swampier portion leading to a creek.

The wind came up while I was in the eastern end and I had a long grind back to the dock. The other place you could get you boat in on the south side is at the end of Range Road 23. Parking is on the side of the road. It is a short carry but about a two-foot drop into a rocky bottom. 

The permitter of Nakamum is about 10km and took me about 2 hours. It was a nice enough lake but maybe a bit boring. There is some gravel involved in getting there (if that matters to you). I think Devil's Lake is actually a more interesting paddle and about 20 minutes closer to town.

Nakamun Lake

Jess and I went out to Nakamun Lake for a paddle. We'd previously been here in the winter when I was a chaperon at band camp (sadly, sober) and I've always meant to come back in summer. The drive is about an hour--better to drive up to Morinville or Legal on Highway 2 and then west than trying to work you way up from Highway 16.

The only public access appears to be on the south side of the lake in the summer village of Nakamun Park. There is a boat launch here with conflicting signage: one says residents only and another says use at your own risk. Overall, there were a LOT of rules and speed bumps in the community.

The launch is very long and ends in a hard-to-read ramp.

Sadly, the lake was in the middle of an algae bloom when we arrived so we decided to not paddle.

It looks like a nice enough lake with a fair bit of boat traffic. I'm not sure it was interesting enough to come all the way back for, though.

After a quick snack in the park, we headed to try our luck on Heritage Lake by Morinville.