History

Ellenwood's current supervised beach area is a man made beach that was constructed for the summer of 1996 to improve the park's facilities. Prior to this, the N.S.L.S. supervised a different swimming area within the park. The landscape of Ellenwood park and its surroundings, like all of south western Nova Scotia, has been modified by glaciers. As these glaciers ploughed and scraped across the land, they created a relatively flat surface. The eroded material was deposited as glacial features such as eskers (sand, gravel or cobble deposits formed into long, narrow ridges) and frumlins (oval shaped hills composed of glacial till). Glacial deposits also blocked the flow of rivers and streams, thus creating numerous lakes in the area such as Lake Ellenwood.

Facilities

Lake Ellenwood Provincial Park offers an 86 site campground with a central washroom and showers, a playground, a group picnic shelter, and a trailer dump station. The park also offers many other facilities such as picnic areas, a boat launch, supervised swimming, and a hiking trail.

Beach Safety

Lake Ellenwood's beach area is fairly safe, but there are some drop off spots that can be dangerous. At each end of the buoy line, there are rock ledges which are surrounded by extremely shallow water. If there are off shore breezes, inflatables can be dangerous for weak swimmers because of the drop offs. The supervised swimming area is marked by red and yellow flags on either side of the beach and a red and white buoy line in the water. It is generally about 150 metres in width, but can vary depending on beach conditions. Beach conditions are regularly reported on CJLS AM Radio. The lifeguards enforce a no diving rule very strongly at all times. The lifeguards also advise patrons not to shoulder dive or dive off of the rock ledges. Patrons are also discouraged from swimming outside of the supervised area. Hard shell boats are prohibited from launching, landing or travelling in the supervised area. Inflatable boats, rafts or flotation devices are also prohibited on days when the wind is blowing offshore. This is too prevent weak or non-swimmers from being carried to far from shore.

Directions

Lake Ellenwood Provincial Park is located 19 kilometres northeast of Yarmouth or 1.6 kilometres south of Deerfield. Take exit 34 off provincial highway 101 and proceed 6.5 kilometres along route 340 to reach the park.