Blanket Beach Provincial Park on Upper Arrow Lake

Hi Blog!

On Wednesday, July 5, 2017, we took our kayaks down to Blanket Creek Provincial Park on the shores of Upper Arrow Lake. Here Kathy gets her kayak ready

The Arrow Lakes are situated between the Selkirk Mountains to the east (right) and the Monashee Mountains to the west (left). Beachland is fairly rare, and is interspersed with rocky headlands and steep cliffs. Mountain sides are heavily forested, and rise sharply to elevations around 2,600 metres. This is the view north as we started our paddle.

The Arrow Lakes were originally divided into Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake and were just wide spots in the Columbia River 14 miles apart. In 1960, the Arrow Lakes became one 143 mile long lake due to the reservoir created by the construction of the Keenleyside Dam. However, during times of low water levels, the two lakes remain distinct, connected by a fast-moving section known as the Narrows. Since 143 miles is a bit much for a single days outing, we decided to head straight across the lake to see what we could see. Kathy leaves an "S" shaped wake through the pollen floating on the surface of the lake.

The origin of the name Arrow Lake was based on a cultural feature known as Arrow Rock on the east shore of Lower Arrow Lake. Opposite the community of Renata is a large rock outcrop or overhang above the water, in the face of which was a hole filled with arrows. There are different stories surround the meaning of the arrows, but it is widely agreed they were shot there by the indigenous people (Sinixt) for good luck, either before or after a war party.

Here we are heading north in hopes of paddling around an island just beyond the sandy point to the left.

As we work our way up the shoreline, we scan the rock fall for likely specimens to add to Kathy's rock collection. Unfortunately, this really cool wavy rock was too big to put in the kayak.

We were really lucky with the weather. For most of the day it was calm and still. The only ripples in the water were from our own paddles.

Everytime we paddled into a cove, there were more really cool reflective rocks to photograph.

When we tired of scanning the shoreline, we turned our attention across the lake. The first breeze we felt all day came right out of that valley in front of the snowy peak. It was like walking in front of an air conditioner. Once we paddled past the opening, all was calm again.

We found our little island, but our hopes of having lunch there were dashed. All the recent snow melt had raised the lake level so much the entire island was underwater.

We decided to head back across the lake toward a rocky beach. We took our time so as not to disturb the water allowing for some amazing reflections.

It always feels good to get out and stretch our legs.

We are getting close to the season premiere of Game of Thrones. You can tell we are getting excited because the first thing we though when we saw this tree root was - The Iron Throne!

After lunch, we made our way back to Blanket Creek Provincial Park. Before returning the boat launch, we tried our best to paddle up Blanket Creek. It wasn't the current that stopped us this time. It was the fact that the creek became so shallow that forced us to turn around. It was fun surfing the current back out to the lake.

After stowing our boats, we drove over to the scenic lookout for Sutherland Falls. We tried to snap a photo of a rainbow to two, but the angle was wrong. However, we certainly enjoyed the cool mist after paddling all morning.

Too give you a sense of what it felt like, here is a video we took.

We really enjoyed our time in Revelstoke and hope to return again.