Little Manitou Lake

Little Manitou has no outflow, so minerals washed in from the surrounding glacial deposits have concentrated over thousands of years: the water carries a heavy load of magnesium, sodium and potassium salts at roughly three times ocean salinity, which makes the density high enough that a person floats on the surface without treading water. Comparisons to the Dead Sea are standard. Cree and other nations used the lake for healing long before settlement, and a resort and spa grew at Manitou Beach from the early twentieth century, with a mineral pool drawing the lake water indoors and a dance hall from 1928 still operating.

What you actually see

• The effortless float - water dense enough to hold a swimmer on the surface.
• The indoor mineral pool - lake water heated in a spa on the shore.
• Danceland - a 1928 dance hall with a horsehair-cushioned floor.
• The salt shoreline - mineral crust and low vegetation around the lake.

When to go

June to September for swimming; the spa is open year-round. The lake level fluctuates significantly with wet and dry cycles, which changes the shoreline considerably.

Honest expectations

The water stings eyes and cuts badly and there are no showers on some beaches. Levels vary by year and a low year makes access awkward. The village is very small.

Nearby

Saskatoon lies northwest; Regina is south.