Glennifer Lake, north shore

Work took me to Calgary in late May and I hoped to get in a paddle at Glennifer Lake. The lake is a reservoir created by the Dickson Dam. We came in off Highway 2 just past Innisfail and hit the north shore of the lake. Unfortunately, the reservoir was very low (in anticipation of spring melt) and it was stupidly windy so, instead of a paddle, we just toured the launch sites on the north shore and had lunch.

The map above gives the the lay of the land. Coming from the east, we stopped at the Dickson Dam beach, the North Dyke Provincial Recreation Area, and the Dickson Point Provincial Recreation Area.

The Dickson Dam Beach has a parking lot with a locked gate and fairly good hike (800 feet?) on a gravel road to get to the water. Accessing the beach required a five-foot drop/scramble to the sand (there might be a gentler slope if you looked around). Overall, pretty meh.

North Dyke Provincial Recreation Area has a campground with pit toilets and fire rings and a modest amount of tree cover. There is a proper boat launch here (cement). The water was low so the launch was long (note wife below for scale).

Again, the beach was meh. Even with higher water, the shore line would likely be pretty disinteresting and prone to wind.

Our last stop was Dickson Point Recreation Area. There is a small campground here with pit toilets and the like and better tree cover. There are two options here You can access the Dickson Trout Pond (maybe 20 acres?) designed for fishing (so electric motors only). There was good parking, an easy carry, and good access. The size and shape like keeps the waves down.

Fifty feet further down the road is a proper boat launch down the lake. The water levels were very low so you could see the entirely exposed. This access point gets you close to the point where the Red Deer River flows in. I would guess this is the most interesting place to paddle. The main lake was rolling like crazy here.

Overall, this was a pretty underwhelming visit. Dickson Point looks like the winner as the launch. Recognizing we didn't get to paddle, the weather was bad, and the water was low, overall the lake looks big and a bit boring. I'm not sure I would bother going back to try again.