A popular fishing lake, Campbell Lake is also a nice paddle.    Grasslands surround two sides of the lake and forest on the other sides.    The approach to the lake is to drive up the Campbell Range Road, then turn onto the Scuitto Lake Road.   Follow this good gravel road to Scuitto Lake.    Follow the road along the lake going east until it crosses the creek which connects the two lakes.    The new road winds through the forest to the newly developed Campbell Lake Recreation site.

There is a good boat launch and parking lot.   The campsite lies to the east of the boat launch.   It has 32 sites and  meets a fairly high standard for BC Rec sites.

Along the south shore there are some rocky shallow areas near the campground and byond along the southeast shore is an extended shallow area.  The three bays are also quite shallow.

On this day, the lake was full of waterfowl.   Ducks and geese swam in all the shallows and perched on rocks.    10 pelicans waded in the lake then took flight to spot fish.   On the other shore, I heard, then spotted 8 sandhill cranes in a bay out of sight of fishermen.  Two black bears foraged on the shoreline.

This is a quiet location when the campground is not full.   If you paddle the entire shoreline, it will cover 7.5km, but this will mean paddling long stretches of shallows.  The shoreline on the north side is dramatically different from the south shore, grasslands and ranching terrain.

On a migration route for birds, this plateau lake (3450 feet) is full of birds in the spring and fall, also times when the area is quieter.   Perfect for a paddle…