Maligne Lake - Kayak To Your Campground
You will NOT be disappointed!! I promise! The trick with this campground is you NEED to mark your calendar on the day the campgrounds OPEN for reservations. Maligne Lake reservations opened on January 23, so I set my alarm and put notes in my work calendar so I wouldn’t forget!!! The only error I made was I thought I was 2 hours behind instead of 3 hours, living in Michigan, so I was about 50 minutes late to the website! By the time I was on site, the campground I really wanted, Fisherman’s Bay, was already full so instead I booked the family campground, Hidden Cove that is only 1 mile into the kayak paddle rather than 8 miles in. Not terrible, it ended up being perfect because we still kayaked around the entire lake after we dropped our tents and bags off, so it all worked out in the end!
STEP 1:
To Book Campsite:
Go to https://reservation.pc.gc.ca/Home.aspx?gccf=true
Go to Jasper – And Maligne Lake
Hidden Cove is the closest to the trailhead – about a mile in and then the other two Fisherman’s Bay and Coronet Creek are much further. If you are with kids, I would definitely recommend the closely site or if you are not experienced or do not love kayaking because it is definitely a work out to get all the way to the other end!
Securing the campsite is going to be the hardest feat!! You will need to honestly be online within 50 minutes of it going live, it WILL book up super fast, so sign in and be ready when it goes live!!!! Don’t miss it!!! Or try and be flexible with your dates and that will give you a better chance. Below is a map of the campgrounds and locations. From the Maligne Lake Public Dock campsites are located as follows:
Hidden Cove Campsite: 3.5km
Fisherman’s Bay Campsite: 14km
Spirit Island: 16km
Coronet Creek: 23km - (this one would be very difficult to kayak to in one day)
STEP 2:
Next if you get the campground, you will need to rent a canoe. We used Pure Outdoors info@pureoutdoors.ca and they delivered the canoe to us and picked it up when we were done with it! It was super easy!
Our canoe all packed up and ready to rock! I have to admit we were super excited but also a bit nervous to try something new like this! We have never canoed into a campsite EVER. So believe me, you can do it, I promise, anyone can!
They suggest to start early before the large scenic boats get on the lake and make for some waves and I agree with them. The scenic boats start at 9 am so it’s nice to get out there before they do for some peacefulness. When we were first on the lake, we didn’t see ONE other person. It was surreal to be out there alone! Surreal and not to mention amazing!
After a bit of canoeing it started to rain and I was shivering pretty bad, so we pulled once we reached the middle campground to drink some warm water and make a warm meal, which really helped warm me up. The temperature of the lake only warms up to 39 degrees, so it is dangerously cold even in the summer months!!
This was the peaceful water on the other side of our campground, perfect for kids to practice their kayaking in because it’s out of the deep water and hidden from the wind and current. Just another reason why our campground is perfect for families.
We kayaked for what felt like 5 hours to the other end of the lake to see the most photographed spot in all of Instagram (so they say) – Spirit Island. This is where the large scenic boats load tourists, so we saw some people here at this spot. Fun fact: We kayaked to the island behind us and were immediately YELLED at by a ranger. I guess it’s against the law to step foot on this island. Who know?
This is why…..Spirit Island holds great spiritual significance for the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, who believe that the mountains are physical manifestations of their ancestors. The island is surrounded by the same mountain range on its north, east, and west sides, and therefore is considered to be a very powerful and sacred place.
We then kayaked all the way back to our spot to finish setting up camp. Our view was out the other side of the lake, a much quieter side. There was only one other group camping at this site that night so it was super peaceful and quite and we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!
If you are looking for an amazing adventure and to try something new, I would 100% recommend this. You can do it!! We wanted to head to our next hike so we only stayed one night, but if I had unlimited time I would have stayed at least 2 nights and then hiked a few hikes on day 2.
But for now, thanks Lake Maligne for an incredible time!
