The Park is open year round unless inaccessible due to weather conditions, especially during the off-season.

Description Dates (2024)
Gate Access / Services May 8 - Sept 5
Reservable May 17 - Sept 2

Vehicle Access Sites 44
Reservable Sites 16
Non-reservable Sites 28
Reservable Picnic Shelters 1

A small picturesque lakeshore park that offers boating, swimming, a grassy campground and day-use area, baseball diamonds and playground area. Located just 35 kilometres south-east of Dawson Creek.

Established in 1918, it has the distinction of being British Columbia's third oldest park.   The park is 67 ha (165 acres). Located within British Columbia-Alberta boundary. It is not to be confused with Swan Lake Kispiox River Provincial Park. Swan Lake is a high use park and is very popular for families and fishing enthusiasts.

Campsites

Dawson Creek, best known as the Alaska Highway Mile ‘0’ site or the “Capital of the Peace”, is a city located in northeastern British Columbia.  Dawson Creek (population: 10,994) is a community that celebrates its history, including the building of the world-famous Alaska Highway, and one of the last remaining original structures of the Alaska Highway, the Kiskatinaw Bridge.

There are many opportunities for outdoor recreation in Dawson Creek, including bird watching in the summer, fishing, or hiking and walking past waterfalls, alpine meadows, and mountain ridges.

Landscape

Swan Lake Park provides representation of the Kiskatinaw Plateau ecosection and is covered by the boreal white and black spruce biogeoclimatic zone. Vegetation consists predominately of trembling aspen, balsam poplar, white spruce and willows. Swan Lake is the largest water body in the Alberta plateau. The maximum depth is three metres, but the average depth is less than two metres.

Wildlife

Black bears frequent the area, as well as the occasional moose and white tail or mule deer. Smaller animals such as muskrat and beaver can be seen around the lakeshore and the Tupper River which drains into the lake through the park.

Birds

There is an abundance of waterfowl and migratory bird populations that congregate at Swan Lake. An example of birds that frequent Swan Lake include: common loon, red-necked grebe, western grebe, trumpeter swan, American widgeon, sandpipers, bufflehead, coot, gulls, eastern kingbird, warblers, blackbirds, killdeer, hooded merganser, red-eyed and warbling vireo, hermit thrush, swallows, yellowlegs, scoters, lesser scaup and goldeneyes, just to name a few.

Fish

Fishing is quite popular at Swan Lake. Species include Walleye, northern pike, yellow perch and burbot. The lake is too shallow and too warm to support cold water salmonid species such as trout and char.

Playground

The first European settlers arrived on the south end of the lake in 1910. 

In 1921 the first school opened on the south shore of the lake.

In 1930 the Northern Alberta Railway came to Swan Lake. 

A community hall was built at the park in 1937 and in 1939 the Sudeten Germans from the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, arrived by passenger train. 

In 1942, the US Army set up a base camp on the north end of the lake.  

In 1942 Dawson Creek became "Mile Zero" for the Alaska Highway.

Exploration for oil and natural gas brought new interest and prosperity to the region and new transportation links as well. The Northern Alberta Railway was joined by the Pacific Great Eastern from Vancouver.

The Alaska Highway House is the newest Dawson Creek downtown attraction. This interpretive center conveys what life was like during the Alaska Highway’s construction.

Visit The Walter Wright Pioneer Village! A great place to tour old buildings and experience the look and feel of pioneer days in Dawson Creek. In summer months, visitors can also have a quick lunch and check out the gift shop.

Dawson Creek Art Gallery

Dawson Creek Resource Centre

Alcoholic beverages is not allowed in the picnic shelter and surrounding public areas.

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