Coming from the west, one crosses the lake from Balfour to Kootenay Bay, a "place" that only consists of the ferry terminal, a motel and a restaurant. There is an ice cream parlor at the ferry terminal in Balfour which is well worth a visit. The ferry is free.
If you arrive at the ferry in Balfour in the afternoon or even in the evening, you should spend the night at Cedar`s Lakeshore Campground about 400 m from the "harbor". On the other side of the lake there is the Cedar Grove Campground after 13 miles of hilly at Gray Creek.