The Malaspina Lake recreation site is located southeast of Tahsis on the head bay forest service road, on Vancouver Island. It is a day-use site with a short trail leading to a sandy point on the south side of the Lake.
Situated adjacent to the road, the lake, and surrounding area provide habitat for trumpeter swans, bald eagles, blacktail deer, raccoons, black bears, and cougars. This is a pretty awesome spot to just stop for a break and look for wildlife.
Malaspina Lake is fed by glacial meltwaters flowing from the Malaspina glacier. They say this glacier could be gone within 25 years due to climate change, not sure what this means for the lake. We will have to just wait and see.
This lake is a great place for anglers to fish from shore and there is a fairly good chance you will land a decent-sized trout here. There are also many rivers, creeks, and streams nearby to try your luck. Like perry River, leiner river, Santiago Creek, blowhole creek, canton creek, products creek, badger creek, and Extravagant Creek.
The road from Gold River to Tahsis features waterfalls, rivers, lakes, wildlife viewing areas, picnic sites, and many scenic vistas.
The road is 40 miles (about 64 km) of well-maintained gravel road suitable for all vehicles. Four-wheel drive is only required after heavy winter snowfalls.
The pullout day-use area on the lake is a nice spot to take a break and just relax, there are many birds here and plenty of hummingbirds so have your camera ready. Not sure what the reason is behind the amount of Rufous Hummingbirds that migrate each year to this area, but it is pretty awesome.