Closest Access Point: Park Lake (Access Point A40) – I don’t know that this is an official access point, so it may be that Smoke Lake (#6) is the best option.
Distance To Access Point: 0.5 KM (Park Lake) 24.8 KM (Smoke Lake) – 10 minutes (Park Lake) or 6 hours (Smoke Lake)
Difficulty of Travel From Access Point: Easy (Park Lake) Hard (Smoke Lake).
Maintenance Level: Low
Date of Visit: August, 2021
This is not an official Park site. It’s actually outside of the Park boundaries and is a crown land site. That said, it’s not a bad spot to spend a night if you’re getting an early start from Canoe Lake or Smoke Lake the next day. Apart from that, I don’t know why you’d stay here. You’re looking across at Highway 60 and Park Lake isn’t exactly the most scenic/inviting lake you can find.
Terrain: This is a small site. It’s perched about six feet above the water on a small clearing. There’s room for the fire pit and the tent and that’s about it. That said, it’s not a terrible little space. The ground is relatively flat (once you climb up the rocks from the water) and there aren’t many tripping hazards. To the east of the pit area and back down at the water there’s a stone strewn flat area that makes for an ok spot to hang out if you’re trying to, I dunno, kill an hour until your ride comes to pick you up.
Canoe Landing: That stone beach is probably the best landing. It’s not the landing we used, but it’s the best. We pulled up right at the base of the site. The shoreline here is rocky but useable. You can pull the canoe up without banging it up too much. The underwater approach is also fairly clear of obstacles.
Fire Pit: The pit is near the front of the site with a view out to the lake. The view is somewhat obstructed by the nearby cedars, but it’s still pretty decent. The pit itself is a couple of rocks high and not very big. This site catches the wind, so you may find you have to build up the wall on the lake side on a particularly windy day.
Swimability: I don’t think I’d want to swim in Park Lake. It’s shallow and weedy. The technical term is “ewwww”. That said, if you did have to swim, this would be an okay spot to do it. You could either wade in from the flat rocky/sandy area or go off the rocks out front of the site. Either way, you’re going to be stepping on and through some muck.
Tent Sites: As I said at the top, this site is not designed for a big group. What space there is is nice and level, but I wouldn’t want to be trying to put any large tents up.
Accessories: Someone has built up a stone table beside the fire pit that’s useful enough. That’s about it.
Views: The view is north across Park Lake. Which means the view is of Highway 60. The good news is that you can get that view from pretty much everywhere on the site. The bad news is, well, the view is of Highway 60.
Notes: Honestly, you don’t want to stay here. The site is fine, but the location sucks.
Related Trip Report: A Walk Among The Raspberries.
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