Little Bear Lake is a lake in the
boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...
ecozone in the
Canadian province
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three pr ...
of
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
. The lake is in a hilly plateau called
Cub Hills and the
landform
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, m ...
s, such as the lakes and streams, of the Cub Hills were formed over 10,000 years ago during the
last ice age. Little Bear Lake is accessed from
Hanson Lake Road, which runs along the eastern side of the lake,
and by a small airport called
Little Bear Lake Airport.
Little Bear Lake is a lake in a glacier formed valley that runs diagonally from the south-west to the north-east. A large portion of the northern end of the lake is called Clark Bay. The lake is fed by several small creeks and rivers along its length. At the southern end, a creek from Divide Lake flows into the lake at Little Bear Lake Resort. Divide Lake is a small
bifurcation lake
A bifurcation lake is a lake that has outflows into two different drainage basins and thus the drainage divide cannot be defined exactly because it is situated in the middle of the lake.
Examples
Vesijako (the name ''Vesijako'' actually means "dr ...
lake in
Narrow Hills Provincial Park that the north flowing outlet goes to Little Bear Lake and the larger south flowing outlet is the source of
McDougal Creek.
The outflow for Little Bear Lake is at the north end of Clark Bay, where a short river flows out and into Heart Lake. The outflow for Heart Lake continues north and meets up with the east flowing
Bear River, which in turn flows into the
Ballantyne River, an inflow for
Deschambault Lake.
Parks and recreation
The extreme southern tip of Little Bear Lake is in
Narrow Hills Provincial Park. On the south-eastern shore of the lake is Little Bear Lake Resort, which features a
Scuba Diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
club that operates off a barge in summer. The airport is located adjacent to the resort.
Just to the north of the resort is a
provincial recreation campground called Little Bear Lake Recreation Site (). The campground features electric and non-electric sites and a sandy beach. There's also a boat launch, fuel, and a store.
Fish species
Little Bear Lake is known for its many types of fish. Fish living in the lake include
northern pike
The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a p ...
,
lake trout
The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...
,
walleye
The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...
,
whitefish,
burbot, and
perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Perci ...
. The surrounding lakes also contain
rainbow
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows ...
,
brook
A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to:
Computing
*Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C
*Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler
* BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programmin ...
,
tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...
,
brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morp ...
, and
splake
The splake or slake (''Salvelinus namaycush x Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a hybrid of two fish species resulting from the crossing of a male brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') and a female lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush''). The name its ...
.
See also
*
List of lakes of Saskatchewan
This is a list of lakes of Saskatchewan, a province of Canada. The largest and most notable lakes are listed at the start, followed by an alphabetical listing of other lakes of the province.
Larger lake statistics
"The total area of a lak ...
References
{{authority control
Lakes of Saskatchewan
Northern Saskatchewan Administration District