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, spruces, ...

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 Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, 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 t ...

. The lake is in a hilly plateau called

Cub Hills The Cub Hills are a hilly plateau located south-east of the geographical centre of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The hills are in the boreal forest ecozone of Canada and the landforms of the hills were shaped more than 10,000 years ...

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, ...

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 Highway 106, the Hanson Lake Road, is a fully paved provincial highway, with no cell service the entire way, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It runs from Highway 55 The following highways are numbered 55: International * European rou ...

, 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 Narrow Hills Provincial Park is a northern boreal forest provincial recreational park in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located in a hilly plateau called the Cub Hills and contains several recreational facilities and over 25 a ...

that the north flowing outlet goes to Little Bear Lake and the larger south flowing outlet is the source of

McDougal Creek McDougal Creek is a river in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The river's source is at the southern end of Divide Lake at the northern end of Narrow Hills Provincial Park in a hilly plateau called Cub Hills. The landforms of the Cub H ...

. 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 Deschambault Lake is a freshwater lake in northern Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The identically-named community of Deschambault Lake, Saskatchewan, Deschambault Lake resides on its shore. See also ...

Parks and recreation

The extreme southern tip of Little Bear Lake is in

. 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 ...

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 The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...

, 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 Percif ...

. 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 c ...

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 programming ...

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 u ...

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'' morph ...

, 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 ...

References

{{authority control Lakes of Saskatchewan Northern Saskatchewan Administration District