Twin Lakes, Crimson Lake Provincial Park

In mid-September, we overnighted in Rocky Mountain House. With a free evening on our hands, we headed to Crimson Lake Provincial Park (about 10km NW of town) to try out Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is small lake (maybe 800m by 400m), really more of a fishing pond, but quite lovely.

There are a couple of access options. Almost as soon as you turn into the lake, there is a small parking area on the west end with a path that leads down to a dock. There is an easy shore launch here but the stairs down were uneven.

We opted to drive around to the east side of the lake (3 minutes?) and use the hand launch, which I think is the nicer option.

You can drop beside the lake and then go park about 20m away. You can launch off the sandy/gravel shore or you can use the proper kayak launch on the dock. There are pit toilets here as well as picnic tables and fire rings.

We did two leisurely laps over the course of an hour.

The water was very clear and clean.

There are a couple of places you can get out on the south and west shores.

There were lots of fish jumping and a loon was fishing.

The water was very calm and the reflections as the sun started to set were great.

There is a second smaller lake to the southeast. There is a narrow channel that appears to connect to it on the air photos. The channel was only slightly wider than my boat and, after about 20m, it started to twist such that I couldn't get my 10-foot boat through it. A shorter boat or higher water might be required.

Overall, this was one of the nicest paddles of the summer and you could easily do Twin Lakes and nearby Crimson Lake in a single day.

Medicine Lake Provincial Recreation Area, near Rocky Mountain House

In mid-September, a trip to the Okanagan took us past Medicine Lake (about 30 minutes north and east of Rocky Mountain House). The lake is about 3.5km long and 500m wide and requires about a 12km drive on gravel.

Lake access is through the provincial recreation area campground's day-use area. There are pit toilets, a picnic shelter, and some picnic tables. The boat launch is cement but there is a sandy launch beside it as well as a floating dock You can drop beside the water and park about 30m away. The water was super clear and clean, even very late in the season.

We had a cloudy and windy day when we were there and the lake was really rolling. We turned right (north) off the launch to head into the wind and the calmer north end. Basically, the lake is a reedy edge with a mixed forest beyond that. There are some sandier spots you can get out fairly easily.

As we puttered in the north end, the wind started to calm down.

We then use the tailwind to coast to the south end. While pretty enough, the lake wasn't super interesting. Just a lot of treed shoreline.

We did see a bald eagle sitting in a tree, likely waiting out the wind.

By the time we turned around and came back up the east shore towards the launch, the wind had abated a bit and the sun started to come out.

There are a fair number of campsites on the eastern shore with water access (if that is your jam). Several folks were fishing or getting ready to go out.

There is a small pond just east of the campground that connects to the lake. You could, theoretically, get a boat under this bridge but a half-finished beaver dam made access impossible for us.

The camp hosts appeared to be renting boats as a side hustle.

Overall, a nice lake with a boreal feel and great water. I'm not sure I would drive here to paddle, but if I were going by, I might stop again.

Crimson Lake

In July, we drove back from Banff along Highway 22 and stopped in at Crimson Lake near Rocky Mountain House. The lake is located in a provincial park with a campground, store, public beach, and boat launch.

We were there on a Saturday and the place was very busy by lunch time. We chose to launch at the boat launch since you could drive right up to the lake. There was a dock, ramp and also a "sandy" beach (that is actually signed as a mud pit). Parking is in a lot maybe 3 minutes walk from the launch.

The lake is about 1 km in diameter and maybe 5 or 6 km around. There is a walking/cycling trail around the lake that runs about 10km. The lake edge basically looks like the photo above: reeds that give way to boreal forest.

There is a modest island in the centre of the lake. The only real aces point we could find was on the NW side of the island but it was busy so we didn't stop to explore. The lake is quite shallow (you can see the sandy bottom in most places) and warm.

The public beach is very popular (being close to town). The picture above shows about half of the beach. There were 20+ kayaks, paddle boards, and floaties near the shore. There were also motorized boats out fishing and tubing in the middle of the lake.