There is a lake in the middle of the Saskatchewan prairie that will not let you sink. We stopped at Little Manitou Lake on the drive from Regina up to Saskatoon, mostly out of curiosity, and spent a very happy hour trying and failing to stay upright in it.
It is a strange, slightly faded, thoroughly enjoyable place, and it is easily the best detour on that stretch of road.
Little Manitou Lake sits at Manitou Beach, about 100km east of Saskatoon and 5km north of Watrous. The water is roughly five times saltier than the ocean and about half as salty as the Dead Sea, so you float without any effort at all. The beach is free, the season runs from around May to mid October, and an hour is enough unless you are staying for the spa or a dance at Danceland.
Little Manitou Lake is in central Saskatchewan, roughly 100km east of Saskatoon and around 5km north of the town of Watrous. From Regina it is about 175km to the north west.
The village on the south shore is Manitou Beach, with a permanent population of around 360 people. That is where the beaches, the spa, Danceland and most of the accommodation are.
It sits almost exactly halfway between Regina and Saskatoon, which is what makes it such a natural stop. Taking the detour added around 35 minutes to our drive, turning a two hour forty minute run into a little over three hours. Full drive times for the whole route are in our road trip planning guide.
There are three designated public beaches on the lake. Parking and access are straightforward and there are toilets for getting changed, which we were grateful for.
Because there is nowhere for the water to go.
Little Manitou Lake is a terminal lake, sometimes called endorheic. Nothing flows out of it. It is fed by underground springs and loses water only through evaporation, which means everything dissolved in it stays behind and concentrates. Over time that turns a freshwater lake into a very salty one.
The lake sits in a glacial spillway, a channel carved out by meltwater as the ice sheets retreated at the end of the last ice age. It used to be considerably deeper than it is now. Around a thousand years ago the water level dropped far enough that it lost its outflow, and it has been getting saltier ever since. Today the average depth is only around four metres.
The numbers, for anyone who likes them:
Salt content: Around 180 grams per litre.
Compared to the ocean: Roughly five times saltier.
Compared to the Dead Sea: About half. The Dead Sea runs to 300 grams per litre and beyond.
What is in it: Sodium, magnesium and potassium salts, plus iodine, silica, calcium, sulphate and iron oxide.
What lives in it: Brine shrimp, and that is about it. No fish can survive the salinity.
The mineral content is also why the water is that odd bronze colour, somewhere between weak tea and old copper. It does not look inviting. It is fine.
Honestly? We were underwhelmed on arrival. From the car park it looks like a stony beach with a burger outlet, which is not what the phrase “Canada’s Dead Sea” sets you up for.
Then you get in, and it is a great deal of fun.
The buoyancy is the whole point and it does not disappoint. You cannot sink. You cannot easily stay vertical either, which is the part nobody warns you about. Your legs simply come up. The traditional thing to do is float on your back and read a newspaper, and we spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to stay balanced long enough to manage it. Everyone does it. Everyone should.
Practical things worth knowing before you get in:
It is colder than you expect: This is Saskatchewan, not the Jordan Valley. Even on a hot day the water has a bite to it.
The lakebed is slippery and muddy: Water shoes are a good idea. We managed without and would take them next time.
Do not put your head under: It stings, exactly as sea water does but more so. Keep it above the surface.
What is in it: Sodium, magnesium and potassium salts, plus iodine, silica, calcium, sulphate and iron oxide.
Rinse off afterwards: You will dry with a fine crust of salt on your skin.
Do not shave beforehand: Anyone who has been in the Dead Sea will already know why.
It is free: The public beaches cost nothing.
It was a hot day when we visited and families were clearly camped out for the afternoon, which tells you something about how locals use it. This is a proper beach day for people who live several hundred kilometres from any sea.
Little Manitou Lake has been regarded as a healing place for a very long time. First Nations people used these waters long before any settler arrived, and the name Manitou reflects that: it comes from the Cree and Ojibwe word for a spirit or a sacred power.
That reputation is the reason the resort exists at all. Visitors have long reported relief from skin conditions, arthritis and joint pain after soaking in the water, and the iodine content is often mentioned in connection with thyroid conditions. The minerals are also harvested commercially and turned into lotions and salves sold across Canada.
We are not qualified to tell you whether the water will help a medical condition, and neither is anyone else selling you a day pass. What we can say is that the reputation is genuine, it is centuries old, and people continue to travel a long way on the strength of it. Whether that is minerals, warm water, rest, or simply a few days away from ordinary life is not something a travel blog can settle.
If you are managing a health condition, treat this as a pleasant soak rather than a treatment, and take medical advice from someone qualified to give it.
If floating in a cold lake in a swimming costume does not appeal, there is an indoor alternative and it is the reason most people stay overnight.
The Manitou Springs Resort and Mineral Spa pumps water directly from the lake into a set of indoor pools kept at different temperatures, hot, warm and cool. It is one of the largest indoor mineral pools in Canada and it is open all year, which matters in a province where the outdoor season is short.
The building has a slightly dramatic history. The original spa was destroyed by arson in 1983. What replaced it is a modern resort hotel of around a hundred rooms with the pools attached.
Day passes are available if you are not staying, which is the option to take if you are passing through. We did not do the spa ourselves, having already been in the lake, and in hindsight on a cooler day we would have. Check current opening hours and prices directly with the resort before you plan around it.
This was our favourite discovery at Manitou Beach, and we found it entirely by accident while walking along the shore.
Danceland is Canada’s last remaining original dance hall. It was built in 1928 during the big band era, at the absolute peak of the Manitou Beach tourist boom, and it has been running dances more or less ever since.
The floor is what makes it remarkable. Five thousand square feet of maple, laid over a cushion of horsehair on rollers, with the tension adjustable underneath. When the hall is full, and it holds several hundred people, the whole floor visibly moves. Dancers say it is far easier on the legs than a normal floor, which is exactly why it was built that way. There is almost nothing else like it left anywhere.
Danceland runs dances on summer weekends and events through the rest of the year, with dining, dance lessons and everything from country nights to polka. People still drive in from Regina and Saskatoon, and in winter from a good deal further.
There is a persistent local legend that Elvis played here. The records do not support it, and people who have gone through the booking archives say Johnny Cash is the more plausible candidate. Either way, ask inside and somebody will tell you a story.
We did not dance, and we regret it. If you can time your visit for an evening, do.
The beach season runs from roughly the start of May to mid October. Outside that, the lake is not a swimming proposition, but the spa pools and Danceland are both open year round.
July and August are when the water is warmest and the village is busiest. We went in August on a hot day and it was pleasantly lively without being crowded.
How long to give it depends entirely on what you are here for:
An hour: Enough to float, dry off and get back in the car. This is what we did and it worked.
Half a day: Float, then a day pass at the mineral spa, then lunch.
Overnight: The only way to do a dance at Danceland, and the reason to consider it.
Because the lake has no outflow, water levels swing with the weather. There have been serious flooding problems in the past, with a berm built in 2011 to protect the buildings. Conditions at the beaches can vary year to year, so it is worth a quick check before making a long detour.
Manitou Beach is small and the accommodation reflects that, so book ahead rather than turning up and hoping.
The Manitou Springs Resort is the main option and the obvious one if you want the mineral pools included in your stay. Beyond that there are campgrounds, a handful of smaller places in the village, and more choice five kilometres down the road in Watrous.
Manitou Beach feels like a resort town that peaked a long time ago and has not entirely moved on. In the 1920s this was second only to Banff as a holiday destination in western Canada, and the summer population swelled from a couple of hundred to many thousands. The Depression ended that, and airlines finished the job. What is left has a faded, slightly out of time quality that we rather liked. If you want polish, this is not it.
Do not come expecting a food scene. Come expecting a beach village where most of it is seasonal, most of it is casual, and most of it shuts for the winter.
Danceland: Licensed, and it does buffet dining alongside its events, so you can make an evening of dinner and a turn on the horsehair floor. This is the one we would build a visit around.
Water's Edge Restaurant: Inside the Manitou Springs Hotel, doing steaks and lunch and supper specials with a sports lounge attached. The most substantial sit-down meal in the village and open year round, which most things here are not.
ODA: A seasonal spot on MacLachlan Avenue for proper coffee, sandwiches and desserts. Good for the walk back up from the water.
In Watrous, five kilometres away, there is more choice year round, including the Pepper Tree Restaurant doing Canadian and Greek cooking, and a bakery on Main Street.
Almost everything at the beach itself is seasonal, opening around the middle of May and closing in the autumn. Check before you plan a meal around any of it.
In closing
Yes, if you are already driving between Regina and Saskatoon. It costs you about half an hour, it is free, and floating in it is the kind of thing you will describe to people afterwards. No, if you are considering a special trip from a long way off purely for the swim. It is a small lake, a cold one, and the sensation lasts about ten minutes before it becomes normal.
The version of this that we would recommend, and the one we did not do, is an overnight stop. Float in the afternoon, mineral pools in the evening, dance on the horsehair floor at Danceland, and drive on to Saskatoon the next morning. That is a properly unusual night out and there is nowhere else in Canada you can have it.
For us, on a two week road trip with a schedule to keep, the hour was the right call. We got the float, we found Danceland, and we spent the rest of the drive to Saskatoon passing mothballed potash mines and long parked trains, which is its own kind of Saskatchewan.
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