Alberta Destinations

William A. Switzer Park offers accessible wilderness

By Julia Sargeaunt

If you haven’t used your camping and canoeing skills since the kids moved out and decided holidays with Mum and Dad were no longer cool, William A. Switzer Park could inspire you to get the camping gear up from the basement and the canoe out of the garage.

On second thought, don’t bother about the canoe -- you can rent one there, and that is a lot easier than hoisting one onto the roof of the car or the van.

William A. Switzer Provincial Park is 25 kilometres northwest of Hinton. It is an accessible, affordable and beautiful location for a summer wilderness outing. You can have a nearmountain experience without having to fight the summer crowds or climb any mountains.

To get there, take the Yellowhead Highway west to Hinton. It is a divided highway. Just west of Hinton, take Highway 40 towards Grand Cache. The highway crosses the park and you turn off this paved road to reach the several recreation areas which make it up.

The park centres around a chain of five lakes nestled in the foothills. The wooded bluffs and hills create an intimate landscape, and there are occasional views of the Rockies.
The park has hiking and biking trails and gentle strolls, but one of the best ways to experience the park is by water with a canoe.

The five lakes are all connected by Jarvis Creek. This winding creek goes through meadows of reeds and grasses and allows you to canoe from lake to lake. Part of the creek is set up as a selfguided interpretative route, with signs facing towards the water for the canoeists.

The most northerly lake is Gregg Lake. Here you can rent a canoe and enter the creek system. With the high rainfall this year canoeing upstream takes more effort. However, with the high water level, you can sometimes just cut across a bend in the creek, paddle over a flooded meadow and avoid someof the downstream current. And coming downstream is a breeze! Depending on the beaver activity, you may have to pull the canoe over a low beaver dam or two. There is also one larger challenge for canoeists -- if you want to go all the way to the last lake, Jarvis Lake, you will need to portage over Highway 40. There are gentle grassy slopes up and down and you just need to watch for traffic before you walk the canoe across the road.

If you make the portage, you are rewarded with a dramatic view of the mountains and you can snack on the wild strawberries that cover the slopes of the portage. However, there is plenty of paddling up to that point, so you can skip Jarvis Lake if you prefer to avoid the portage.

As you glide along in your silent canoe, you can easily see deer, beaver, muskrat, as well as loons, ducks, and maybe an eagle. There is a wide variety of alpine flowers: paint brush in various colours, western wood lily, larkspur, orchids, monkshood, yellow pond lilies and many more.

The park has a wide choice of camping services. For example, Gregg Lake has a fully serviced campground with showers, plugs-ins and sewage dump. Along the creek there are more primitive camp sites: Halfway and Graveyard campsites have random sites in meadows by the creek. Here the only service is pit toilets, but the sound of the loons calling from lake to lake during the night is magic.

It you feel like a roof over your head, go to the Blue Lake Adventure Lodge, which is in the park. They have a variety of cabins and rooms as well as canoe rentals.

When you have been heroic and done your canoeing and camping, you can head 40 minutes up the road to Miette Hot Springs in Jasper National Park.

For more information about William A. Switzer Park or to reserve a campsite, call
(780) 865-5152.