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Pro
Lot's of outdoor activities close at hand
Con
no bus service available
In a nutshell
Nice place to visit, not sure I'd want to live there in the winter!
There are other options in winter!
Bwana_Brown Says: Cold Lake did not get its name by accident - for a good seven months of the year it is not a warm place in which to be living! During the last visit by my wife and I, in the final week of December, 2007 we finally encountered what it was like to be in Cold Lake during the...
Another Part of Cold Lake Provincial Park
Bwana_Brown Says: On our second visit to Cold Lake, it turned out that we were there on July 1, which happens to be both Canada's birthday (139th) and our son-in-laws! It started out as a sunny day, so we decided that some swimming in the lake itself was in order. Kevin had access to a rustic...
Bwana_Brown Says: The actual lake spans the Alberta-Saskatchewan border with its pristine waters, providing a great playground for boating and swimming in the summer. In addition to the water activities, this area is home to over 200 bird species. During those long cold winter months, you can...
Hanau93 Says: ..is located at Cold Lake Provincial Park. It is nature at its best. Beautiful beaches and gorgeous sunsets and a calmness that is unmeasurable. All you hear are the noises the birds make ...There are however firepits as well where we roasted our wieners and...
38 Opinions
45 Opinions
charlenemartel Says: We were advised about 3 great places to have pizza. This was the second of the three and we never got to try the 3rd which says a lot about how much we favour this store. The service has been great (all but once) and the delivery time is usually estimated to be within 45...
charlenemartel Says: Friends had raved about the food at Dairy King and so, one evening we dropped in to see what was on the menu. The staff were warm and welcoming from the start and the menu showed a wide variety of edible goodies. Since it is so rare to find donairs (well.. good ones) in the...
Dairy Queen: There are better places to eat!
charlenemartel Says: After seeing the commercial on TV about their great offers, we decided to give our local store a try. The parking lot was pretty iced over but in winter it's expected here. The inside of the store was very clean and impressed me from the start. The staff were busy doing...
Backyard BBQ: Home Cooking is Hard to Beat
Bwana_Brown Says: The day after our lakeside swim, we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather by having a traditional Canadian backyard barbeque. Our daughter and son-in-law have a large deck that suited our needs perfectly, and his sister was also on-hand to join in on the...
A & W: A Classic Canadian Fast-food Chain
Bwana_Brown Says: The American & Western (A&W) chain of fast food restaurants was actually started in western Canada 50 years ago, and now spans the country. Their original restaurants were drive-in affairs where you parked your car under large awnings and the food and drinks were brought out...
krista_bailey Says: Starz nightclub has a very friendly atmosphere. A great place to party with friends or just go to have a drink the staff is always friendly and willing to talk. come as you are
frankcanfly Says: A great place to begin the night, but I wouldn't stay too long.The bouncer there was a real jerk. He kicked out many people for just dis-agreeing with him. When we were ready to leave, we told him what we thought of the place, and he 'let' us out as well.
Helpfulness
For our 10-day drive around Alberta, I booked a rental car from Budget about a month before our trip began. I seemed to get a pretty good deal on a Compact, unlimited mileage car with a total price of US$270, taxes included.
At the time that I booked the car, I did not know that we would be taking a 3rd large suitcase with us filled with various gifts for our children and grandchildren, with Christmas not too far off! When we were at the rental counter, the lady mentioned that I should maybe upgrade to something larger, like a Ford Explorer in case we needed more room. She almost sucked me in, but when she quoted the price as being US$400, I decided to stick with the smaller Toyota Echo. As it turned out, the car has a huge trunk with no problem taking the three suitcases as well as a few other carry-ons!
It was also fantastic on gas consumption and handy for driving and parking in downtown Calgary! No complaints at all.
Updated Oct 4, 2004
Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart, etc.: No Shortage of Shopping!
Bwana_Brown Says: Since we were in the area, it made sense to buy a few Christmas gifts then instead of shipping them all the way from Eastern Canada a couple of months down the road. As a result, we made few rounds of the stores. The mall area pictured here contained the local Canadian Tire,...
Suds & Spirits Liquor Store: Beer & Wine Supplies
Bwana_Brown Says: My son-in-law's father and his wife timed their visit to coincide with ours, so there was a bit of partying going on! Since my daughter had just recently started part-time work in a local store, it turned out to be very handy for us when we needed to replenish the wine and...
Helpfulness
Another great day, hitting 28 C, forced us to consider a trip to the beach located just a short drive from our daughter's house, in the town of Cold Lake itself. We and the kids had a great time splashing around in the water and also playing a game of pick-up basketball. However, across the lake on the eastern side, we could see a large dark grey mass of air building up in the early evening as a result of the hot daytime temperatures. It was not long before we noticed a distant lightning stroke, straight down from the heavens to the ground. Very soon afterward, flames were visible, even though we were miles away, as smoke rose from a sudden forest fire along the Saskatchewan side of Cold Lake. This photo was taken about 2 hours later as the fire had grown and it looks like water bombers will have to be called in.
Written Jul 3, 2006
Bwana_Brown Says: With our inside contact, we were able to obtain the necessary security passes to have access to the Base itself. Here, we were treated to a walk-through of one of the main hangers as well as a runway view of several of Canada's current front-line fighter, the CF-18 Hornet,...
Bwana_Brown Says: Cold Lake is a slightly different posting for SARTechs as compared to the other bases in Canada. Here, the main role is to assist in the event of problems with miltary aircraft using the huge demarcated firing and training ranges north of the Base. Since there is generally...
Bwana_Brown Says: In the last two years, the new Westland-Augusta 'Cormorant' helicopter has been brought into-service, leading to the phase-out of the 'Labrador' in the summer of 2004.Although with only one main rotor, these new twin-engine helicopters are far ahead of the old Labs in their...
Bwana_Brown Says: When I first became drawn into the Search & Rescue world 5 years ago, the workhorse of the Royal Canadian Air Force rescue teams was the Boeing-Vertol Labrador twin-rotor helicopter. Even then, these 36-year old machines were almost always older than the people flying in...
Helpfulness
Favorite thing: Located east and slightly north of Edmonton, Cold Lake is only a few kilometers from the Saskatchewan border.
Since we had daughters to see in both Cold Lake and Calgary, to the south, we flew into Edmonton, at the junction of the 'red' roads near the centre of the Province. From there our journey first took us east for a few days visitation before we then headed almost due south along the Saskatchewan border before turning straight west for Calgary located close to the Rocky Mountains on the border with British Columbia.
Altogether, we put about 2000 km (1300 miles on the car).
Updated Oct 4, 2004
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Cold Lake - Air Combat Fighter Training Area
Born during the Korean War and in the midst of the Cold War, construction of the fighter base at Cold Lake, Alberta was begun in 1952 and finished two years later. The idea was to have a vast training...
Cold Lake- Great Vacation Spot
I totally fell in love with this lake/town which is at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. It's about a three hour drive North East of Edmonton.The lake is huge and as the lake indicates it can be quite...
We moved here mid 2008 and though we have explored the area some, there is so much to see! I can hardly wait. So far we did get to spend the back end of summer in the North Bay Cabins and after a few...
Cold Lake is in eastern Alberta, right next to the Saskatchewan border. As the name says part of the city is build next to the Cold Lake. In the last 10 years there as been a big population boom...
Build your own Cold Lake page
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