Balsam Lake is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the City of

Kawartha Lakes The City of Kawartha Lakes (2021 population 79,247) is a unitary municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. It is a municipality legally structured as a single-tier city; however, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typical Ontario county and is mostl ...

Central Ontario Central Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario that lies between Georgian Bay and the eastern end of Lake Ontario. The population of the region was 1,123,307 in 2016; however, this number does not in ...

, Canada. It is in the

Great Lakes Basin The Great Lakes Basin consists of the Great Lakes and the surrounding lands of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in the United States, and the province of Ontario in Canada, whose dir ...

, is one of the lakes of the

, and is at the summit of the

Trent–Severn Waterway The Trent–Severn Waterway is a canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, Kawartha Lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching an ...

Geography

Balsam Lake is long and averages wide, though its actual width varies due to the many large bays that carve its shoreline; the total area is and the

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

area is . The primary inflows are the Gull River at the north and the Staples River at the southwest. The lake is the highest point of the Trent–Severn Waterway at ; from here, the waterway descends to

Georgian Bay Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To ...

in the northwest, and to

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

in the southeast. It is the highest point to which a vessel can be navigated from sea level in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

. The main outflow, at the east, is the

Rosedale River The Rosedale River is a river in the City of Kawartha Lakes in Central Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin and is part of the Trent–Severn Waterway. The river is named after Rosa Dale, the wife of settler John Cameron, who first sett ...

and Trent Canal leading to Cameron Lake. The village of

Coboconk Coboconk, often shortened to Coby, is a community in the city of Kawartha Lakes, in the south-central portion of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. The village lies at the junction of Ontario Highway 35, Highway ...

is located on the north side of the lake.

Natural history

Balsam Lake Provincial Park Balsam Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park located in south-central Ontario on Balsam Lake. The park is situated along the Trent-Severn Waterway, a few kilometres southwest of Coboconk. It is an all-seasons recreation area offering camping ...

and Indian Point Provincial Park are located on the north shore of the lake. The lake offers excellent fishing for bass, walleye, and muskie. Mackenzie Bay in West Bay is a popular spot for boats to congregate on a warm summer day.

Map images

References

{{City of Kawartha Lakes Lakes of Kawartha Lakes

Geography

Natural history

Map images

See also

References