On a warm day with no smoke, I drove up the Tranquille – Criss Creek Road 36 km to Red Lake. the usual boat launch is from the east side, but there is a newer Recreation Site at the north end. From the junction to Red Lake, continue up the Criss Creek Road for 2 km, then turn left onto the Seven Lakes Road. At about 1.5 km turn onto the Leblonde Road. A short distance further, the road splits and the left fork goes to the Rec Site.
There are 14 campsites with tables and pit toilets nearby. A gravel road goes down to a boat launch, but the lake levels were low, and the launch area was very shallow. My kayak was fine, but any larger boat may not work out late in the summer.
I paddled a 5 km loop on the west end of the lake, with one stop onto a small islet. There were no other boats on that end of the lake, but I paddled down through the narrows to see down the lake and there were fishermen on the south end of the lake.
At the northwest corner of the lake is the Red Lake Dam. Sparks Creek flows out of the lake to Sparks Lake. Sparks Creek flows into Criss Creek and it continues down through the hills to Deadman River. In 2021 a wildfire started at Sparks Lake when an old vehicle caught fire next to a marijuana grow-op. It became the largest fire in the province, burning almost 90 000 ha of land. When I hike to Skoatl Point 40 km away, the black forest there is the northeast end of the Sparks Lake Fire.
I kept the distance shorter since there were red algae bands (Cyanobacteria) in some parts of the lake. After paddling I walked through the campground and along some nearby tracks. I plan to return to this Rec Site again to paddle the lake again and then explore other backcountry tracks in the next year.
