Whitney Lake and Chicken Hill Lake

In late August, we had the chance to paddle and swim at Whitney Lake, in the Whitney Lakes Provincial Park, and then scouted out Chicken Hill Lake, just NE of St. Paul.

Whitney Lake

Whitney Lake is a circle-shaped lake, about 1.5km in diameter. The best access is through the day-use area at the Whitney Lake Campground. The signage coming from the west is pretty good. The signage coming from the east is less helpful and the entry-way is just a nondescript gate that is easy to overshoot. Once inside the park, follow the signs along the winding road to the boat launch.

There is a boat launch where you can drop beside the water and park. It has a concrete ramp (that could use some repair) and a dock as well as room on the side for a beach launch. The nicer access, though, is off the main beach.

This requires a carry of about 50 meters to the water. There are pit toilets, a playground, a marked swimming area, picnic tables, and a picnic shelter here. Overall, this park could use both some renovations and a larger cleaning budget. The beach had a noticeable amount of garbage on it (old inflatables, shoes, cans--really unusual for a provincial park). Camping at Ross Lake would be the better option.

The water was super clean and the swimming area had a nice sandy bottom. We went left (west) off the beach and follow the shoreline around. It took us about an hour and we travelled about 4km. It was 34C that day and we were bushed by the end.

Despite being the slow season, the bird watching was good with an osprey, four cranes, and 40 pelicans passing overhead.

I wouldn't say this was the most interesting paddle in the world, but no complaints. After we got back, my wife took a swim and said the water was lovely.

Chicken Hill Lake

In scoping out this trip, one of the possible back-up lakes I noticed was Chicken Hill Lake, just NE of St Paul. The lake runs NW-SE and is about 5km long and maybe 400m wide. We drove out in the evening to have a look around. There is a small campground in the north end with a boat launch.

The lake has dropped appreciably since the launch was installed and the cement blocks are now located well inland of the lake edge. I am standing on the end of the cement launch in the photo below. Beyond that, it is just sand to the water.

There is a floating dock and there were people out on the water the evening we were there.

The water quality looked pretty low to me so we decided to take a pass. This might just be an August thing?

Given the number of lakes in the region, I probably wouldn't bother to go back here.

Whitney Lake and Ross Lake

We took a trip out to Whitney Lakes Provincial Park this month. Whitney Lakes has four lakes in the Park (Laurier, Borden, Ross and Whitney) and is about three hours east of Edmonton. Basically east until just after Vermilion and then north for an hour. The roads were awesome with new pavement--an easy drive.

We had time to try two lakes and the online reviews suggested we look at Ross and Whitney Lakes. We started at Ross Lake (bottom right in map above). It has a provincial campground on the south side of the lake with very private camp sites and nice amenities, including large showers. On the west side of the campground, there is a boat launch with ample parking and an outhouse.

Since the lake was also rated as highly swimmable, we went looking for beaches and found two. The first (below) is north of the shower complex along a 300m trail. A bit of a haul for boats but a nice walk and a super secluded beach. We had a lovely swim here with a sandy bottom and shade (it was +30 by noon).

Around the east edge of the lake (in the loop that has campsites 78-102), is a second beach. This has good parking and is a short, 100 foot walk to the beach. There are toilets, play equipment, a swim area and a lovely beach.

We then went to Whitney Lake (bottom left in map above). The entrance is not all that well signed. The campground is not great--big open space with no shade and no privacy. The beach is about 75 feet from the parking lot and is lovely.

It is a big beach with lots of room. There is easy beach launching, a shallow grade, and a marked swimming area. Just to the NE there is a boat launch. There were more motor boats on this lake (bigger than Ross Lake).

The swimming was also nice (+35C by the time we got here). Although nice, I'd rate Ross Lake nicer. The campground was way better, the lake was quieter and more interesting from a birding and paddling perspectives. And the water seemed a bit cleaner to me (although both were lovely).

I'd go back if only to try Laurier Lake (couldn't figure access to Borden Lake from the maps). The distance from Edmonton suggests camping is likely necessary (nearest big centres are St. Paul or Lloydminister if you wanted to hotel it).