Petroglyphs Provincial Park is host to the largest known concentration of indigenous rock carvings in Canada. Located just northeast of Peterborough, here’s what you need to know!
During a recent stay at Warsaw Caves Conservation Area, though, we finally got our chance to check out this important site.
Located near the city of Peterborough, this amazing site is a day-use only park. The centerpiece of the park is the Petroglyph site, a building surrounding the “Teaching Rock” - A large, smooth rock with hundreds of images hard-carved into the surface over a thousand years ago!
There are interpretive plaques along the edge of the walkway, so it’s a really great opportunity to learn more about the Algonquian-speaking people that lived in the area centuries earlier.
Beyond the glyphs themselves, the natural features of the park are also spectacular. Located on the southern edge of the Canadian Shield, it’s home to not only some of the rock face that’s characteristic of the Shield, but also an extremely rare type of lake.
Lots to talk about, so let’s just get to it...
The Basics:
Location Name: Petroglyphs Provincial Park
Address: 2249 Northey’s Bay Road. Woodview, ON K0L 3E0
Website: Petroglyphs Provincial Park
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2024 Day Use Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Park Classification: Cultural Heritage
Season: May 10, 2024 to October 14, 2024. (Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in the Spring and Fall, with the exception of holiday Mondays.)
Logistics
Registration and Check In
You can register online or in person at the Visitor Centre. Due to the layout of the park, we recommend booking your daily vehicle permits online - and preregister.
That way, you can stop off at the East Day Use area - or anywhere else you want - before getting to the visitor centre, which is at the far end of the park from the entry gate.
We didn’t do that, so had to loop all the way back.
Check in - and purchasing our day pass - was fast and friendly, as always.
Maps and Signage
The signage in the park is largely pictorial, especially with regards to the direction of the Pictographs site - I suppose that tracks 🙂
Really straightforward park, easy to get around.
The paper map has Nanabush as red, Marsh as blue, and West Day Use as and orangey-yellow.
A - fairly new looking- sign out on the West Day Use Trail has Nanabush as red, lists Marsh as yellow, West Day Use as having orange blazes, and includes a 1 km "Ratorats Trail" (White Blazes) that doesn't exist on the paper map.
It also shows a trail running out along Nanabush that goes out to High Falls - also not on the paper map.
In reality, the paper map reflects what colour the blazes are, on the actual trails.
Connectivity
The internet is very spotty, and in some places non-existant.
Accessibility
There are two accessible parking lots, much closer to the Learning Centre.
The first is Senior Parking, the other is the Disability Parking.
Senior Parking is significantly bigger and little further from the Visitor Centre, but a little closer to the Petroglyph Site.
I was having a bad tendon day, and had a really difficult time walking from the disabled parking to the building.
On the way out, I walked out to the senior parking, while Porter brought the car around. SO much easier.
Anyway, the trail out to the lake isn’t wheelchair accessible, but it should be OK for those with other mobility issues. A little bit of a challenge (hills, somewhat rough terrain), but a short trail and absolutely worth it. Also, there are places to sit, at the end of the trail.
None of the hiking trails are accessible, but the walk to the site is accessible.
They do offer wheelchairs to borrow - one is available at the Petroglyph Site, and the other at the Learning Place.
Pets
Dogs are welcome in most of the park - leashed at all times.
The exception to this is at the Petroglyphs Site itself.
As a sacred site, the Indigenous peoples of the area have requested that dogs be excluded from the site.
There’s a set of benches 100 m away from the site building, where those with dogs can wait for the rest of their party.
Parking
There are a few parking lots throughout the park - at each of the two day use areas, a main parking lot (near the main trailhead for the hiking trails, and a bus and trailer parking lot right next to that one.
The main parking lot and trailer/bus parking lots are a bit of a hike to the Visitor Centre - probably about half a km, maybe a little less.
There’s also a seniors parking lot near the Visitor Centre, and a very small disability parking section even closer - but downhill.
Bottom Row: Bus and Trailer Parking Lot
Miscellaneous
The Petroglyphs Site is a sacred place for the local First Nations community. For spiritual reasons, photography is not allowed at the site itself.
This just applies to in the building - you can take photos anywhere else in the park.
Park Amenities & Info
Some information about the amenities at Petroglyphs Provincial Park:
Learning Place Visitor Centre
We really liked it, it was a lot more in depth and higher quality than we anticipated - very much like a museum.
The display area was beautifully arranged with artwork, and there were great opportunities to learn about aspects of First Nations spirituality, wisdom and stories, as well as some of the traditions of the Ojibway people of the area.
Really beautifully and respectfully done!
Park Store
The Petroglyphs Park store was super cute.
Right from the time we entered the door - to a giant canoe displaying plush toys - the whole vibe in there was completely different than most Provincial Park Stores we’ve been in.
There was even a stone fireplace and kind of a sitting area, with the invitation to hang out there with a warm drink or snack. It was really cozy.
It also had a bit of a different selection of items than we normally see in Provincial Park stores. Along with the usual park souvenirs, there was a lot of native art, prints, handmade purses and other interesting items.
Creature Comforts
There are flush toilets in the visitor centre - they were in good condition during our stay.
There are also two vault toilets near the main parking lot, and one at each of the two day use areas.
Day Use Area
As a day-use park, I suppose the whole thing is a day use area... but the term tends to get used as a synonym for “picnic and recreation area”, so that’s how I’m looking at it here. 🙂
Anyway, there a picnic tables throughout the park, and two main day use areas - each on opposite sides of McGinnis Lake.
McInnis Lake West was our favourite of the two day use areas, but it had a bit of a trail to get to McGinnis Lake itself.
Once you got there, there were a few picnic tables overlooking the lake, and you could walk down several layers of rock to get pretty close to the water.
There are a couple offshoot trails that will take you to a single picnic table in a more secluded setting.
There are two trails from parking lot - the left one goes back to a marshy section of the lake, while the right one goes to the vault toilets and a field with the picnic shelter.
There were some little side branches of trail as you approached the lake, not sure what was down there - someone was mowing, and we were hot and tired by this point.
Anyway, this is the day use area that has the only covered picnic shelter in the park.
McGinnis Lake
The bright blue-green Mcginnis Lake is not only a gorgeous visual, it’s a rare meromictic lake.
This is a type of deep lake with distinct layers of water that don’t mix. This means you’ll end up with layers that have completely different properties, from temperature to salinity levels.
The lack of mixing between the layers tends to mean that the bottom of the lake is very much undisturbed - and usually good conditions for preserving whatever is down there.
Pretty cool that we’ve been to two of them already!
Anyway, McGinnis Lake was gorgeous, when viewed from the west side. You get a full panoramic view of the green, turquoise colour of it.
We went on an overcast day, and it was still pretty spectacular. I bet it’s AMAZING on a clear sunny day.
Petroglyphs Site
Housing the largest collection of ancient First Nations petroglyphs, the Petroglyphs Site is located a short distance from the Visitor Centre.
It’s surrounded by a protective building, and the walkway to the site has orange and red ribbons tied to trees and railings the whole way.
Inside, there are displays by the local Ojibwe people about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) - and the Red Dress campaign - as well as Every Child Matters (orange) inside.
The glyphs are ancient drawings carved into the side of a large limestone rock face, with a stone tool.
The limestone area makes up the bulk of the inside of the building, and there’s a catwalk around the outside it. The glass building allows for a lot of natural light to view the carvings.
There were excellent views of the petroglyphs the whole way around the rock, and it had a really peaceful, respectful vibe. Kind of serene.
There was a detailed map on a wall that showed all of the carvings, and where to look for them, as well as information boards that taught a bit about these Teaching Rocks.
The carvings were amazing. They looked so smooth, we had been wondering if they’d used some sort of chemical in etching - though we weren’t sure what exactly was known / accessible back then.
It was just really cool to see artwork from over 1000 years ago!
Anyway, the two staff members on hand during our visit were super knowledgeable and hilarious.
They told us that the glyphs were hand carved into limestone, and each took 40+ hours to do.
The dark colour of the glyphs was from when a university was working on the site. They had given their research students wax crayons, and had them colour in the glyphs to see them better.
Oof. Apparently the Curve Lake First Nation was understandably not impressed!
Anyway, at some point, one of the staff members made a gneiss pun, which ended up sending us down a rabbit hole that involved info dumping about learning about calcium carbonate in crisp crunch bars in elementary school.
We don’t really interact with people often. I wonder how many Provincial Parks staff we’ve left wondering “WTF?!” over our lack of filters, LOL.
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Entertainment and Activity
A bit of information on the activities you can - and can’t!- participate in, at Petroglyphs Provincial Park:
Hiking
There are 3 hiking trails at the park, all of which form a long, interconnected sets.
We didn’t do any of them to completion - we didn’t have a ton of time, and I DEFINITELY didn’t have the mobility that day - but here’s what we can tell you about them:
Marsh Trail - 7 km, moderate
Porter only did the first ½ km or so of the trail, as it overlapped with the Nanabush trail.
The Boardwalk - about ½ km in - was really wonky in general, but really messed up in one spot. It was clear that they were at least getting ready to fix it, though.
An enjoyable enough trail, from what he could see.
He only went as far as some of the initial pine forest and the marsh. From there, it’s supposed to be a steep climb to some uplands.
Nanabush Trail - 5.5 km, easy
Nanabush Trail starts out overlapping a section of the Marsh Trail - Porter didn’t go as far as the split.
From the sounds of it, the trail branches out to take you to some rock outcrops, as the Marsh Trail heads off to those upland climbs.
West Day Use Trail - 5 km, moderate
This hiking trail had some significantly hilly spots - up and down. Again, he only did a small part of it, starting off to the left side as you’re looking at the trail head.
It got a lot more scenic as he hit the first boardwalk, but that was around the point where he turned around.
He notes that the gaps between the boards on that boardwalk were further apart than normal, so it looked like it wouldn’t be very sturdy - though it was actually pretty sturdy.
Overall, enjoyable enough walks and he wished he had had more time / that I had better mobility that day, so we could have checked out more of each of the trails.
Biking
We saw a few people cycling on the main roads through the park, but bikes aren’t allowed on the actual trails, and the website has no information about cycling at all.
We also don’t remember seeing any bike racks there, for what it’s worth.
Birding, Wildlife, and Nature
While the area is obviously going to be great for wildlife viewing, the weather on the morning of our visit didn’t really help us, on that front.
We saw a couple deer on the park roads, on the way from the Visitor Centre to the McGinnis Lake West Day Use Area.
In terms of birding, I heard a Northern flicker and two or three other kinds of birds that I couldn't identify, near the visitor centre. The app wasn’t picking them up, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard those calls before!
While we didn’t really get much in the way of photos, we saw: Black-Capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Eastern Phoebe, Turkey Vulture...
... and we heard: Common Grackle, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker.
In terms of nature in general, there were plenty of wild flowers and fungi. One highlight was a fungus that looked like The Enterprise!
That’s... a new one for us.
Swimming
If you’re looking for sandy beaches to swim at, this isn’t the park for you. In order to preserve the unique properties of McGinnis Lake, swimming is not allowed.
Boating
There is no boating allowed in Petroglyphs Provincial Park.
Fishing
Fishing is also not allowed in Petroglyphs Provincial Park.
Discovery Program
When Porter asked about the lighting at the Petroglyphs Site, they told us that they have evening programs a couple times a month - we missed it by a week. Boo!
Anyway, first they bring people in to see the award winning film “The Teaching Rocks,” in the visitor centre theatre.
Then, the group is taken to the Petroglyphs building, for an experience *entirely* different than viewing it in the daylight.
There are a whole bunch of lights around the perimeter of the glyphs site building, which aim almost sideways on the glyphs. Because of that side lighting, you can apparently see a lot of them much better - the smaller, more shallow or worn ones come into sharper relief.
As you’re viewing the glyphs, the park guides tell you all about the carvings, and the historical Indigenous culture in the area.
Beyond that, they also offer programming for school groups and such during the operating season.
Niantic Games
There are a few stops in the park - mostly near the Visitor Centre - though connectivity can be an issue.
Nearby Attractions
If you’re not already staying there in order to visit Petroglyphs Provincial Park, be sure to check out Warsaw Caves Conservation Area. The caves and hiking there are fantastic! .
Also, we took a side trip to see Canada's Dinosaur Park - definitely worth seeing!
Final Thoughts
The park had a lot of amazing history to explore, and it was interesting two see such very different features - the meromictic lake, and the petroglpyhs site.
I think it’s a great place to explore at least once, if you’re in the area. There’s not a TON going on, but we’d definitely go back to explore the trails - they looked like a lot of fun.
Also, we’d love to go back on a sunny day, and just hang out by the lake.
The evening programs for the petroglyphs site sound great, also. We’ll definitely have to book a trip around one of them next year!
More Places to See
Looking for some nice sights to see and great places to visit while you're out on your camping adventures? Here are a few of our favourite day use parks, attractions, etc.
Batchawana Bay
Big Bay, Ontario
Bruce Peninsula National Park
Canada's Dinosaur Park
Falls Reserve Conservation Area
Flowerpot Island
Gariepy Creek Falls
Menesetung Bridge
Point Pelee National Park
Provoking Falls (Algonquin Park)
Scenic Caves Nature Adventures
Screaming Heads
Spirit Rock Conservation Area
Temagami Fire Tower
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