Soldan Lake

In early May, we took a quick trip out to Soldan Lake, just north and slightly west of Stony Plain. Soldan is a pretty small lake (easily two laps in an hour) and is reasonably sheltered, making it a good option on a windy day or when the evenings are short.

The best access for hard-sided boats is on the SW corner of the lake just off Bridgewater Drive. It is just a short (10m) haul down a shallow slope and then you can slid in through the reeds. Parking is about 40m to the west (a small pull out that you will pass on your way in).

If you have an inflatable, you might be better off to park and walk up the ATV trail. It starts by the hood of my truck in the photo above and meanders maybe 40m to come out at the dock in the picture below (which you can also see in the distance in the very first photo). I didn't walk up this time but I recall the footing, especially by the dock, to be a bit uneven.

Once you are on the water, you can follow the shoreline around. It is mostly reeds with aspen in behind them. There are a few cabins but there is no other place to get out.

The lake is super quiet and too small for powered boats. There were a goodly number of birds here in May, including grebes, loons, ducks, geese, red-winged blackbirds, and a grackle.

The water was quite clear in early May and was probably okay for SUPs. There does not appear to be an inflow or outflow so it will likely get nastier as the summer goes on.

Oddly, we found two arrows hidden in the weeds by the public dock (one of the weirder finds over the years).

Soldan Lake

In late June, I visited Soldan Lake for the first time. Soldan is a small lake west of Stony Plain and just north of Highway 16 on Range Road 20. The map below shows the access points on the SW corner of the lake.

The blue arrow shows the parking spot. You could get two cars here but there is room to also park on the shoulder.

The red arrow is a floating dock. To access it, you follow a quad trail along the shore for three of four minutes. The footing is mixed and quite uneven right as you head down to the dock. 

I put in beside the dock (to the left in the photo below) and that was fine.

The mauve arrow is the other option, which is a shore launch with a short push through a reedy channel. Just walk 200 feet east on the road and you can't miss the access point. This was the better of the two options, I think.

The lake is small (maybe a 2km perimeter) so you could easily paddle it twice in an hour. The water was very clean except at the very north end where there was some vert blue algae.

There are no motorized boats on the lake and just a few cabins. There were lots of birds, including loons and grebes. The lake was over calm, be small, shallow, and sheltered. If you wanted a first attempt at a more rustic entry, this might be a good choice.

The map of the lake suggests there is an accessible northern basin. I pushed about 40 feet through the reeds until the tiny channel doglegged and I could not get my boat past this.

Overall, a lovely and quiet albeit short paddle on a lake I've never been on before.

This is close enough to Edmonton to make this a viable paddling spot for an evening.