Kennedy Lake Park is a day-use park on the south shore of Kennedy Lake, beside Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Vancouver Island's west coast. BC Parks says the park has two sites and lies on Highway 4, eight kilometres east of the Pacific Rim Highway and Highway 4 junction.
Kennedy Lake is the largest freshwater lake on Vancouver Island.
Kennedy Lake Park is a beach-and-lake stop for visitors travelling between Tofino, Ucluelet, and the Pacific Rim area. Visitors come for swimming from sandy shores, kayaking, canoeing, windsurfing, and freshwater fishing for cutthroat trout.
The park also has fish-habitat interest. Small creeks under the highway provide spawning and rearing habitat for several fish species, and BC Parks says beach spawning of sockeye may be seen in fall. Black bears are common at that time, so viewing should be cautious and distant.
Facilities are simple: a small picnic area, pit toilets, and a rustic boat launch suitable only for car-top boats. There are no developed trails, and campfires are not allowed. BC Parks lists a park area map and Clayoquot-area brochure for orientation.
Plan around day-use picnicking, sandy-shore swimming, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing, cutthroat trout fishing, fall sockeye viewing from a distance, lake photography, and quick stops near Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
Bring drinking water and treat any surface water. Winds can rise quickly across Kennedy Lake and Clayoquot Arm, especially in summer afternoons, so paddlers and boaters need extreme caution.
