Horseshoe, Yellowhead, and Moose Lakes, Jasper

Last Thanksgiving, we headed to Jasper sans kayaks for a family vacation. The weather took a turn and we spent part of one day scouting out three lakes for 2026.

Horseshoe Lake

We've paddled Horseshoe Lake a bunch of times over the years but the 2024 burned through this area. The lake wasn't open when we were here in the spring of 2025. We were delighted to find it open and ready to go for next year.

The lake is located about 30km SE of Jasper, down the Icefield Parkway. It is shaped like a horseshoe and has about a 2.5km perimeter. There is a pit toilet in the parking lot and room for maybe 12 cars.

Access requires carrying down a steep slope from the parking area. The picture below is shot looking west towards the parking area. The two people in it give you a sense of the scale.

You have two main options for entry. The green arrow is probably the easiest. As you approach the bottom of the hill, hang left up the western edge of the western reach. This trek should be easier since the fire burned out a lot of the vegetation. You need to get far enough up the lake to get clear of the downed logs (picture below) in order to launch.

This takes you into the narrow chute (below) with great cliff photos and then into the rest of the lake. This is, honestly, all worth the effort because the lake is wonderful.

The other option is to trek to the orange arrow and work your way down the rocks to the lake. This is a bear of a trip with a hard-sided boat. It is easier with an inflatable. Again, the burn has cleared out a lot of the vegetation so this is an easier trip than in the past.

We'll have to wait until spring to see what the place looks like in better light and with the vegetation regrowing.

Yellowhead Lake

About 35km west of Jasper on Highway 16 is Yellowhead Lake. It runs approximately east-west for about 3.5km and is about 500m wide (though it pinches about half way down.

The best access option looks to be the Mount Fitzwilliam Trail parking lot on the north side of the highway. If you are coming from Jasper, you will pass a rest area and then there is one sign about 400m before you have have to make a sharp turn down into the parking area.

The parking area has lots of space and a pit toilet. You could carry down from here along a dirt trail (orange arrow above). The trail is pretty challenging.

But then you get to this lovely beach.

The better option is to drivey to the boat launch (green arrow), unload and then go park back at the orange arrow. The grave-sand launch is very nice and seems to have a bit of shelter from the west wind.

I am super keen to paddle here next summer.

Moose Lake

Another 25km west of Yellowhead Lake is Moose Lake. Moose Lake runs roughly NW to SE and is 12km long and up to 2km wide. There is a boat launch on the very east end.

The launch is a bit tricky to hit coming from the east. You get two chances to enter, about 30m apart, but both require a left across ongoing traffic and that can be hard if traffic is thick.

The launch itself has a small parking spot, a pit toilet and a cement ramp down into the water.

 

There is also a small gravel beach on the right side of the launch in the picture below.

The east end of the lake offers access to the Fraser River and is probably the most interesting part. 

Mostly, this lake looks too big for me and likely prone to some good waves in any kind of wind. 

Franchere Bay, Moose Lake (Bonnyville)

In late July, we spent some time in Bonnyville and paddled Moose Lake. The weather was uncooperative (wind, rain, smoke) so we decided to put in at Franchere Bay Provincial Recreation Area on the west end of the lake.

There is a boat launch here but we decide the beach looked just as easy. We parked about 30 meters from the water's edge and carried down a gentle grass and then sand slope. There is was a one-foot drop (retaining wall) down to the beach.

There were pit toilets, picnic tables and the usual stuff in this campground. The lake has a sandy bottom and looked quite swimmable.

We went left off the beach (north) and under the bridge into the channel (Thinlake River) that connects to Thin Lake. There were a fair number of birds here, even during the slow time of the summer and we went about 3km upstream before we started to bottom out a bit and turned back.

The shore was basically bullrushes giving way to bog or boggy forest.

We came back out into Moose Lake and then Jenn got her kayak sail deployed and spent some time enjoying the wind.

We drove around a bit to look at other launch sites, thinking we'll be back at some point. On the southwestern shore is the Pelican Point municipal campground. This has a boat launch and beach (meh) and gives easy access to the southern basin (which as lots of islands). We may well try here next time.

On the northern shore, we came south off of Highway 600 down Lakeview Drive (Range Road 72A) to this sandy launch. This launch gives good access to the northwestern basin as well as river (that doesn't seem named on google maps).

A little further east on 660 is access to Moose Lake Provincial Park (down Range Road 70). The park is sprawling and the launch is pretty decent. It gives good access to the eastern end of the lake.

There seem to be lots of access points to this pretty big lake. I wish the weather had been a bit better!

Whiteswan Lake and Moose (Alces) Lake

In July, we were in southeastern BC and drove into Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park. The drive in off of the Highway is 22km of windy, rolling, gravel logging road that you share with logging and mine trucks. Most of the road is fine (just dusty) but, if you get car sick, you'll want to take some gravol. 

The biggest hazard are loose cattle, that are everywhere. There is a 3km stretch around the Lussier Creek Hotsprings that is more exciting, including a bit of single-lane, hanging on the edge of the cliff with a 300-foot drop and no guard rails. Not a big deal (people haul huge holiday trailers in here) but worth knowing if you are a nervous driver.

The first lake you hit is Moose Lake (or Alces Lake) which is a small, sheltered lake with only electric motors. You can get access at the campground or, a bit further down the road, at a boat launch. There is a creek that leads into Whteswan Lake, but I don't know if it is navigable. This would be a good fallback option in a windy day.

A kilometre down the road is the west end of Whiteswan Lake. There is a campground and a boat launch here. The road continues on the south shore and there are at least two other boat launches on the road plus launches at the two campgrounds on the east end. We put in at the first launch.

Access was easy. The carry from the car was about 40 feet and we did a beach launch. There is also a proper boat launch and a dock.

We had a very calm day and the lake was lovely. It is about 6km long and the width averages 1km (although it widens at the east end to 2km).

The water was super clear and we paddled the perimeter in just over three hours.

There were lots of nature-y things to see, including birds, dead heads, and some great underwater cliff faces. There wasn't really anywhere to get out on the north side of the lake until you hit the boat-in campground about half way down. The south side of the lake had pretty good access if you needed to get off the water most of the way along.

There was a creek (Cave Creek, I think) on the north side and there is a campground here with picnic tables, fire pits, and pit toilets. This looks to be boat-in only and doesn't show up on google maps.

The shoreline is basically this all the way along.

The water was crazy clear and a lovely green. We could see fish swimming below us and there were lots of people fishing in the east end of the lake. There was only one power boat on the lake and they were pretty respectful.

This might well be quite a different lake in bad weather or a big wind. We had an exceptional day.

Below is one of the launches on the south side of the lake with the road visible at the top of the ramp.

Overall, this was an amazing paddle, aided by the great weather, and was worth the drive.