Murtle Lake sits in a basin deep within Wells Gray Park.   It is North American’s largest non-motorized lake and a destination for many paddlers.   We launch out of the lagoon and spend a few days of paddling, camping,  and enjoying the remote rugged scenery.   The lake was created when a lava flow from the northwest dammed the Murtle River and over thousands of years the lake has expanded east and north to what it is today.

The major source of the lake is the Murtle River which flows 18 km from the north, draining glaciers, snowfields, and watersheds of the Cariboo Ranges on the northeastern edge of Wells Gray Park.

There is a campsite at the narrow beach at the north end of the lake, but the area floods during spring melt and stays marshy all summer.   The silts carried down by the river have created a sandy beach, but the northern end of the North Arm is a remote and unwelcoming place (especially in bug season).

A few additional streams (including Strait Creek) also empty into the lake from valleys to the east and west.  At the southeast corner of the lake Snookwa Creek drains the Stevens Lakes and Shuswap Highlands to the south.

Along the northwest shores are two more larger creeks that drain into Murtle Lake.  Anderson Creek flows south carrying the meltwaters of the the Mobely Range and Anderson Lake.   File Creek arises in the Cariboo Ranges, collects into McDougall Lake and then flows south where it is met by the creek that drains Kostal Lake.   There are campsites right at the stream outlet.

The outlet from Murtle Lake is at the western end where it flows down into Diamond Lagoon, then over McDougall Falls on its 36 km route over several falls, last of which is Helmcken Falls, then it meets the Clearwater River.

The Clearwater River flows south to meet the North Thompson at Clearwater, then south to Kamloops where it meets the South Thompson and becomes the Thompson River.   At Lytton, the Thompson meets the Fraser River.   In theory, if we put a message in a bottle on Murtle Lake, it would arrive at the estuary in Steveston and beyond to the Salish Sea in just a few months.   🙂