Coal Lake and Pipestone Creek

In late May, I ventured down to Coal Lake and Pipestone Creek near Wetaskiwin. Access to both is available at the south end of Coal Lake near the campground.

The launch contains a cement ramp and a small gravel beach, a dock, pit toilets, and picnic tables plus lots of parking. The water was pretty clean in late May.

The entrance to Pipestone Creek is due west across the lake from the launch. The entrance is in the reeds on the south end of the lake but isn't hard to find (being 25 feet across). Just paddle to the west shore and turn left (south).

The channel meanders some and eventually you go under a cement road bridge with lots of swallows.

You can then paddle about 4 winding km up the creek. There are usually lots of birds to watch.

Eventually you enter sensitive habitat with this request to stay in your boat. This matters because you will encounter some beaver dams and be tempted to get out to get around them.

On this trip, the first one I encountered was broken (left side of picture below) and the water was high enough that I could bum scoot over the lip.

The channel narrows as you go upstream against the very mild current.

Someone cut the tree that used to block the channel.

This let me get to the second beaver dam.

This is a good-sized dam (over my head sitting in the boat--maybe a four-foot lip). I was getting tired and decided to turn around and float back.

It was a lovely paddle on a hot day with no bugs and pretty decent water. Probably not suitable for SUP or inflatables, though,

On the way out, I got pretty close to some pelicans.

I drove back past the launch at the north end of coal lake (which is very long). This site has pit toilets, picnic tables, and a cement launch.

The road that crosses Coal Lake also has informal pull outs you could access. Coal lakes extends a bit north of the road (although you can't get under the road) so you could also paddle that, if you wanted.

I think the next time I'm down here, I will give the north access a go.

Jackfish Lake, Parkland County

In late May, we got out to Jackfish Lake, just west of Stony Plain, for a mid-week paddle. Jackfish is a nice, clean lake with good access on the eastern side at the county boat launch just off Highway 770. There is a dock, cement ramp, gravel beach, pit toilets, and a picnic table here. The drawback is that the county charges for access after 4:30 on weeknights and all day on weekends (it was $20 when I was there).

The other drawback is that, on occasion, I've had some unkind behaviour from big wake boats, especially around the launch area. We were fortunate to not have any issues this paddle and crossed to the island before turning south.

There is a lot of shoreline to explore and this trip we saw a stupid number of loons.  Some were on nests while others were just out cruising.

The shoreline is fairly built up but there are also still wild areas.

The water was super clean and I'd SUP here.

There are some small bays and inlets in the south end that are fun to explore. There were lots of geese in here.

We had pretty amazing weather, being both sunny and calm. I have had wetter paddles on Jackfish (it is big enough to get a good chop on a windy day). 

There were lots of other birds, including this pelican who we watched fish along the shore. 

Overall, a decent paddle a nice lake. I would avoid this one on a summer weekend as it is likely to be busy. The people we watched fishing were having a great day.

Round Lake, near Evansburg plus Lake Isle northwest launches

In late May, I finally managed to get out to Round Lake, which is located about an hour west of Edmonton on Highway 16, just north of Magnolia. Access is from the north, down Range Road 70 

You can park about 10m from the edge of the lake and unload. Access to the lake requires navigating some bullrushes. I was able to get in and out dry. The challenge for my visit was the channel was blocked at the end by some kind of home-made raft.

I was able to bull past this with some work.

Reverse shot of the launch and parking.

The shoreline is basically reeds with a mixed forest behind it. There is no easy place to get out around the perimeter of the lake. 

There were a tonne of birds on the lake and on the shoreline.

The sunshine was also amazing the day I was there.

In the west end, there is a small creek you can paddle up. This actually looks more like a canal (when you look at the satellite photo).

The navigable part seems to end at a small bridge in the middle of this person's farm.

Beyond the birds and fresh air, Round Lake is pretty unremarkable. I suspect it would be buggy in the summer and the water likely gets a bit green (it was dark, iced tea coloured the day I was there).

Overall, an interesting enough early season paddle with good birding. It took me just over an hour to go around the perimeter (so maybe 5km with the side trip up the creek) Probably not suitable for SUP and not interesting enough that I would go back.

Lake Isle, Northern Shore
Since I had some time, I decided to come back to Edmonton along the north shore of Lake Isle and check out some of the launches I have not yet been to.

There is a small boat launch by the Lutheran summer camp (orange arrow). It offers a cement ramp, a floating dock, a picnic tables, and garbage cans. There is parking just at the top of the ramp in the photo below).

A little further east, there is a launch at Jones Beach (green arrow). This offers similar amenities as well as a pit toilet. The parking situation was a little less clear here.

I haven't explored the far west west end of Isle Lake so I will try to get back here this summer.

Johnny's Lake

The 2026 paddling season got off to a late start (I think I got on the Sturgeon April 30). In early May, we headed out to Johnny's Lake for a shake down cruise. Johnny's Lake (orange arrow) is located just north of Star Lake (blue arrow) and best accessed by travelling north from Star Lake on Range Road 25, crossing the train tracks, and then turning west into the small subdivision.

Once you turn into the subdivision (blue arrow below), you can follow the loop around the boat launch road (orange arrow). This road is not signed and is a gravel two track through some closely-set trees. Eventually it opens out to the boat launch (green arrow) where you can park in the turn about.

The launch is just a small cut in the bank and requires you to step down about two feet after walking down a gentle slope. It can be mucky and, later in the summer, the water can be pretty green. This year, the launch was pretty easy and the water was clean in early May. The launch is shallow and there is a firm bottom (sand-gravel) you can stand on if you need to. We managed to get in and out dryfooted with a bit of bum scooting.

This is the launch from the water, showing the elevation change as well as the parking (the carry is about 5 meters).

The attractions of Johnny's Lake are many. There are few private cabins and, thus. almost no powered boats (I have never seen one on the lake). It is also relatively unknown and hard to find so I've also never seen other paddlers here. There are, however, a tonne of birds.

On a calm day, the lake gives great reflections and there are three islands to explore (one in the southwest corner and two just slightly northwest of the launch.

On the southwest shore, there is also a creek you can paddle up (the entrance is by an old hunting blind). This has lots of birds in it and a muskeg shoreline so you may see moose.

The drawbacks of Johnny's Lake is that the water quality is not great. Best case, it has a Mountain Dew tinge and you can see the bottom. As the summer goes on, it gets opaque and sometimes gets algae blooms. It is not really a great lake for SUP (nearby Mayatan and Star are better). The entry is also slightly more challenging than a beach launch (this varies by year and water level). I'd say it is usually a 2 out of 5 in terms of difficulty.

Depending on the day, you can basically see all of the usual lake birds here, including pelicans, swans, eagles, loons, cormorants, grebes, mergansers, and various shore and swamp birds. There are also beavers and muskrats.

If you want to make it a two-fer, Star, Mink, Hasse, and Mayatan lakes are all very close by.