Cache Lake, Blue Lake, and Jarvis Creek, William Switzer Provincial Park

In early August, we were in William Switzer Provincial Park for a few days and wanted to paddle Blue Lake and Cache Lake. This ended up being slight more complicated than expected but was a great trip. My initial plan was to simply drive over to the Bus Lake boat launch (purple arrow) or park (blue arrow below) and carry down the slope (yellow arrow) to the lake.

Two problems arose. The first was that there was a locked gate (red arrow) to keep people out of the Blue Lake Centre (which seems quasi closed, although not totally abandoned when we walked around it). I'm also not sure whether the boat launch is publicly accessible when the Centre is open.

The second problem was that the path down the slope from the parking lot was steep and rooted and muddy and it was wet as hell. Yeah, you could do it but I wasn't up for a tumble on the mud with a boat on my head. The picture above is the entrance and underplays how steep it was; the picture below is where the path come out at the lake (shot the next day from the water)

What we decided to do paddle into Cache Lake, find Jarvis Creek, paddle 2km up the creek, and then hang a right into Blue Lake

Cache Lake

The best access to Cache Lake is at the canoe takeout in the Graveyard Lake Campground (purple arrow, which is actually on Jarvis Creek). This required a few kms on a gravel road and the campground  is a nice seven-site, grassy campground with pit toilets, garbage cans, fire pits and picnic tables. It was empty when we were there.

You can park right beside the creek and either enter at the bottom of a small slope (right behind my truck, in the photo below) and paddle 100m south into Cache Lake. Alternately, you can walk up a short, signed path over a bridge and get pretty close to Cache Lake. You might have to do this if Jarvis Creek is low, as the first 30 meters is shallow.

The slope is a bit steep (maybe a 1.5m vertical drop with some quasi- mud and grass steps). The shot below gives you a sense of the height. If this is too daunting, there is always the 30m carry to a gentle bank entry.

At the bottom of the slope is a little ledge of mud and gravel to get in off of. It was wet the days we were there and this was both gooey and slippery as hell in our water shoes! If I had to do it again, I would enter about 3 meters to the left (up stream) from where Jenn has gone in in the picture below.

Once in the water, we paddled 100m upstream. There was a slight S-curve that was shallow and someone has re-arranged rocks to create a paddle-able channel here.

Cache Lake was amazing. Clear, clean water with fir trees on the shore. The perimeter was maybe 3km so about 45 minutes.

We were watching a loon with two chicks when suddenly it started making a distress call. Over our shoulders came an osprey carrying a fish with a bald eagle in hot pursuit. I'm going to try to embed the video below (fingers crossed).

There was quite a dog fight and the osprey eventually out turned and out climbed the eagle and everyone calmed down.

We did a quick circuit of the lake, including the large island in the middle and eventually found the entrance to Jarvis Creek (green arrow in map above).

Jarvis Creek

Jarvis Creek is a fairly gentle creek, maybe 3 to 5 meters wide that flows through a boggy fen. It is part of a canoe trip you can take from Highway 40 (orange arrow above) to the pull out at Graveyard Lake campground (purple arrow). We saw some folks putting in off Highway 40 the next day as we drove out of the park.

I understand that this trip is sometimes not possible at lower water levels. About a third of the way in, you can turn west and access Blue Lake (blue arrow). I'd say if you were just doing the creek, you should allot maybe an hour for the trip (which is about 4km), more if you plan to paddle one or both lakes (and why wouldn't you?).

The access to Jarvis Creek from Cache Lake was easy to find and the paddle was pretty straight forward. There is a bit of a current but it was no big deal.

There is some signage along the way but basically you just stay in the main channel.

After about 2km (45 minutes), you will see a sign saying Blue Lake that points down a smaller channel with lots of grass. This is a short spur with no real current that dumps you into Blue Lake.

The grass is pretty tall here!

Blue Lake

Blue Lake is a small lake (maybe a 3km perimeter) with lovely clean water that had a deep blue-green colour to it.

There is a small landing on the north side (where the Blue Lake Centre boat launch is) with pit toilets (locked!), a picnic table, and some canoes. We stopped here for a snack and to stretch our legs. You could swim from here.

We then did a quick circuit of Blue Lake.

You can see the dining hal at the top of the hill in the picture below).

We then reversed our trip back down Jarvis Creek (a 20-minute ride with the current!), crossed Cache Lake again and pulled out where we put in. The round trip took us just under three hours.

Jarvis Creek continues into nearly Graveyard Lake and then on to Gregg Lake. The signage and google maps suggests that there are a lot of blockages and paddling that way isn't recommended. We'll maybe check out Graveyard Lake next time we're in the area.