Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada is a very large park. In fact, that might be a huge understatement. At 7,630 square kilometres or 2,946 square miles (yes, this park is measured in square miles and not acres) it is nearly twice the size of the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad. It is twice the size of the U.S. state Rhode Island and about 500 square miles larger than the state of Delaware.
It is over 100 kilometres or 60 miles to travel, as the crow flies, from the extreme north to the extreme south of Algonquin. There are some 2,400 lakes within the park boundaries and over 2,000 km of interconnected canoe routes. This is the location of the headwaters of several rivers, including York River which downstream houses Egan Chutes – a natural gem that we featured just recently.
Yet, very few see much more of this park that a narrow strip that follows highway 60 across the bottom end. I would like to say that when I visited in June, 2015 that I was one of the few. Not so, I was one of the many. We camped at a developed campground within earshot of the truck traffic on highway 60 and, although we saw a lot, we saw a very small fraction of what Algonquin has to offer.
Why is that? Very little of this massive expanse of reclaimed wilderness is accessible by car. If you truly want to see Algonquin Provincial Park, you must be willing to paddle for a day or two (or more). There are backpacking trails that will get you out into the wilderness but the options pale in comparison to the canoe routes.
The poster child for Algonquin is the moose. To see these gentle giants (gentle unless they’re mating) we arrived at pretty much the perfect time. After the winter, they tend to gather at the road side ditches for the road salt flavoured water. Towards July, they move into the forest, looking for more food and avoiding the crowds of gawkers.
Alces alces came across from Asia around 11,000 years ago when ice made a massive bridge across via where Alaska now sits. Typically, the population in Algonquin is around 3,500 but that number can fluctuate significantly year to year. These animals are herbivores and can take in some 50 kilos of greenery each day. At 500 kg or 1,100 pounds, it takes a lot of food to keep these guys going.
During our visit, a day did not go by without seeing a moose. We did not see any bears but had a significant experience with another animal. One night, around two or three am, we were woken by a blood curdling scream. About 20 seconds later, the scream was repeated. Then again in 20 second intervals for quite some time.
We thought maybe some kind of owl. It turns out, it was a fox. The female fox will let go these screams, sounding like a distressed human female, while enduring the mating process.
The reflections off the still evening waters throughout the park are breathtaking. The above was taken at Kearney Lake Campground. The above was one of the few images that I took at this spot that did not have bright flashes ruining the view. It took a while for me to figure out what was going on. It turns out, the massive amount of mosquitos and black flies flying around me were reflecting back the camera’s flash.
We camped on the south side of the highway at Pog Lake. We were the only ones on our particular road for the duration and there were very few others in the entire campground. Pog Lake opens for the long weekend in May then closes again until mid June. Even then, it is only open until the Labour Day weekend. We arrived during those opening days in June.
Pog Lake has 286 campsites, some with hydro and some without. All the modern facilities are available and nightly fees range from $44 to $51 per night. For U.S. visitors, you can basically take 20% off that price with the exchange rate as it is right now.
Kearney Lake is on the north side of the highway and is administered by the office at Pog Lake. The 104 sites provide the same services as Pog Lake and the same facilities are available. However the campsites at Kearney Lake are not nearly as private.
The above image is taken from one of the swimming / canoe launch areas at Pog Lake.
I’m not usually too big on visitor centres. However, the one at Algonquin is worth a visit. Above is the view of Cache Creek as seen from the outdoor deck attached to the back of the centre. Inside is a pretty outstanding museum / display featuring the nature within the park and the history of the area.
Not all animals are overly ‘wild’ within the park. There is a family of mallard ducks that hang around the Pog Lake beach looking for handouts. These guys can actually become a little bit pushy in their search for food.
I can still hear the hum of the mosquitos when I look at the image above.
It’s not the most hidden fact but it’s still hard to believe when you visit Algonquin. This area was once pretty much scraped clean of trees and had a large hotel resort that looked like it fit more in the Poconos than in the middle of Ontario’s near north.
This staircase is a reminder that the Highland Inn once stood rather majestic on this spot. This is on the shore of Cache Lake and the Highland Inn stood from 1908 to 1957. At it’s pinnacle, there were 72 rooms – eleven even had their own bath.
The Highland was built and operated by the Grand Trunk Railway. The railroad passed just below, between the hotel and the lake. Today, the rail bed is still used as a biking trail and some of the hiking trails travel over portions. At the site of the hotel, there is a short interpretive trail with signs giving info and showing pictures of what once stood there.
The Highland was dismantled and burned in 1957 when the park decided to return things to a natural state. The last train passed through in 1959. Previous to that, the Inn took a beating during the Great Depression and was closed from 1932 to 1937. When highway 60 was built in 1948, it brought a brief new era of prosperity to the Highland.
Along with the stairway above, there are other remnants if you look close. There is a cement foundation that runs the length of the building and there are also some plumbing fixtures that have stood the test of time.
Algonquin is the oldest provincial park in Canada, established in 1893, eight years after Banff became Canada’s first national park. Algonquin is now designated as a National Historic Site of Canada.
Below is the obligatory nighttime long exposure campsite image. It’s a new tent and, quite frankly, my plans of doing star trail images by the water were carried away by the bugs.
