Knowing myself to be a restless soul, once my wife booked our secluded cottage just south of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, I started looking around for what kind of trouble I could get myself into within a one hour drive. Don’t get me wrong… a cottage in the middle of nowhere sounded great, but sometimes when things are too quiet, I need an escape valve for a short diversion to give myself the ability to enjoy some more peace and quiet. Maybe a touch odd, but it has been working for me on my travels for years now.

Sylvan Lake popped up through my searching as meeting my criteria for a fun half-day excursion. My wife elected to stay back at the cottage, so I hopped in the car, popped open the sunroof, turned up the stereo and hit the arrow-straight highway east for about 45 minutes. My first stop was Sylvan Lake Brewing Company located on the east end of the town. I had visited far too few breweries in 2020, and sadly this would end up being the only “new to me” craft brewery I got to visit in the entire year. Sigh.

That beer list was a sight for sore eyes. Nine beers on tap, most of which were very highly reviewed, made for some difficult choices for my tasting flight. I was visiting on a perfect late summer afternoon and knew I’d be sitting outside on their deck to enjoy the beers, so I opted for a flight that would pair well with warm weather.

Everything I chose both looked suspiciously similar in their respective glasses, and at the same time, like I had made four perfect selections for hanging out in the sun. Across the board, these were exceptionally well made beers and on-point style wise. My favourites were #3 (a full flavour session ale) and #11 (a New England pale ale), but I wouldn’t refuse another pint of #2 or #4. Just look at how happy I was….

I nursed those beers, perfectly content to be sitting outside on a patio. My limited planning for visiting Sylvan Lake was to enjoy those beers, then head for the lakefront of the town to look around. A short five minute drive back west through some picturesque winding streets had me at the water’s edge. I could immediately tell this was a quaint resort town – there were lots of higher end houses near the lake and a very cute downtown. As I parked the car to walk around for a bit, I made a mental note to look at rentals here for a future visit.

It was a couple of days after Labour Day, so the town was fairly quiet. A few people were out on the lake on paddle boards, there were a couple of pleasure craft drifting past, and like me, the occasional person walking on the boardwalk along the water. A little bit more wandering around had fulfilled my need for a short change of scenery and as quickly and as easily as I arrived, I made my way back to our cottage via the same dead straight highway heading west.

A bit of a postscript… I was bringing a few beers back from Snake Lake Brewing to enjoy at our cottage over the remainder of our stay. At the counter buying those beers, after expressing how great I thought what I tried had been, one of the women in the brewery walked back to the canning line and grabbed this brand new beer, as fresh as fresh could be, and added it to my order as a gift for my kind words. I was stoked, because how often to you get to try a beer that was canned that very day. After arriving back at the cottage, I put my feet up, and cracked open this beauty. A great way to end my day trip to Sylvan Lake.