Hunters Bay Trail

We’ve camped at Arrowhead Provincial Park a TON of times, and somehow - up until fall 2025 - we had no idea we were only10 minutes away from the Hunter’s Bay Trail.

Now, I wouldn’t doubt that any campground we’ve stayed at is in pretty close proximity to some kind of external hiking or walking trail, but here’s the thing: The Hunters Bay Trail features a long floating boardwalk section!

Obviously we had to check it out - and we did... twice on that trip!

As expected, we really enjoyed the boardwalk section... but there is SO much more to the trail than just the boardwalk. Aside from the trail itself - and those views! - there’s a beach, playground, outdoor gym, picnicking, a boat launch, AND some great bird watching opportunities.

So, we have a LOT to talk about - let’s get right to it!

The Basics:

Location Name: Hunters Bay Trail
Address: Huntsville, Ontario. Multiple access points, see the parking section - below - for addresses.
Website: N/A
Price Free!
Reservations: N/A
Season: Spring, Summer, and Fall*

* We came across one news article that indicated that the trail closes for the winter (mid November), but another that says only part of it does.

There are signs saying that the trail is not maintained in winter, and one of the signs has a symbol for cross country skiing... so definitely some mixed messages!

Logistics

Some basic information to help you plan your visit to the Hunters Bay Trail:

Registration and Check In

There are no reservations required - or available, as far as we could see.

All of the parking lots were free, no need to check in anywhere. Just show up, find a parking spot, and go wander the trail!

Parking

There are 4 main access points to the trail, each with their own parking lot. Parking is free at all of them, and it’s a basic park set up - show up, find a parking spot, and wander.

Hunters Bay Trail End Parking

This is located at 130 Lakeshore Rd Huntsville, ON P1H 1Y8, a little off the highway.

You have to drive through some residential area to get to it, and the parking lot only holds MAYBE 5 cars, if everyone’s being polite. In no way is this parking lot suitable for anything bigger than a regular sized car or truck.

Orchard Park Parking

This is located on E Airport Rd, Huntsville, ON P1H 1Y8.

This had room for maybe 8 cars, and was definitely not suitable for trailers / RVs.

Avery Beach Park Parking

This is located at 2 Yonge St N, Huntsville ON P1H 1W6.

There were actually 3 lots - a middle one, an upper lot, and a lower lot... but the upper and lower lots were reserved for permit holders only.

Looking at the middle lot alone, this was the largest lot across all the access points, and could hold probably 30 cars or so. It was also the only one that allows / is suitable for trailers - so long as there’s room.

We went on a day where there was a charity run happening, so the lot was almost completely full.

That said - if you are bringing a trailer or RV in there - the parking lot itself is on the upper half of a loop, which goes down to a boat launch below, then around. So, if you show up and aren’t able to get parking, you won’t get stuck.

Main / City Center Parking

This lot is located at 37 Centre St N, Huntsville ON P1H 1T4. (Or 42 Centre St North, depending on what source you’re looking at!)

It’s kind of a weird entry point - Google Maps directs you to turn off the main road at the right point, but that turn takes you to an immediate split. It looks like you’re supposed to go into some industrial lot, but the trail parking is to the right of that, and down a hill.

They could definitely use better signage.

Anyway, this parking lot had room for maybe 15-20 cars, but would not be good for trailers or larger vehicles unless empty. I wouldn’t risk it, personally.

Washrooms

There are portapotties at each parking lot, with the exception of the Trail End / Lakeshore Rd Parking lot. Of the lots that have them, there’s a single one at each, but 2 at Avery Park.

The Avery Beach Park portapotties aren’t as easy to find as the other ones (which are all right in the parking lots).

You’ll need to either go down the road from the parking lot that has the “Vehicle Entry Restricted” signs, or take the walking path to the right when you get to it.

Either way, there’s a parking lot down there - at a little marina - with two Portapotties. One of them is the only wheelchair accessible style one that we saw on the trail.

Maps and Signage

Each of the main entrance points - with the possible exception of Orchard Park - has a large trailhead type sign with a map, and some details about the trail.

We REALLY liked the trail maps on the extension section - they were simple, easy to read, and still contained a LOT of information.

For instance, different types of path surface were colour coded, and the legend for each of those surfaces had even more info about them. For anyone interested, these were:

Floating trail: Composite decking with 0% cross slope and 2% incline.

Pedestrian bridge & boardwalk: Pressed treated wood decking with 0% cross slope.

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP)/ gravel: trail angle 1.5% cross slope and 0-6% incline.

The spots with steeper areas were indicated on the map, with those grades listed at each spot.

Unfortunately, those maps only covered a short section of the trail - the extension area, as far as Avery Beach.

I didn’t see similar maps for the other end of the trail... and that’s where the grade information would have really come in handy!

The other trail entrances tended to have some form of map, just not as new looking and comprehensive.

In terms of signage, there’s not a lot. Places where trail picks up after road or parking lot are marked, but that’s about it - we didn’t notice any blazes or anything like that.

That said, it’s a really obvious trail, blazes really aren’t necessary in this case.

Accessibility

In general, the hiking trail is an easy trail, and should be more or less accessible to most people with limited mobility... it’s just going to depend on what your issues are, and how you access the trail.

If coming from the “Trail End” parking on Lakeshore, there is a very steep path down from the parking lot to the floating boardwalk. I don’t think this section is wheelchair accessible, and those with knee or back problems are likely to have a bad time.

If coming from the Orchard Park area, there are only short sections of mildly to moderately steep path.

You should be able to access the extension trail / longer floating trail with no problem (As far as the uphill section to the end parking lot), and proceeding the other direction to the shorter section of boardwalk only involves one steep area - it’s short.

The Avery Beach Park access point is by far the most accessible. The trail is wide and flat with only gently rolling hills in each direction.

Beyond that, the picnic shelter at Avery Beach has 2 wheelchair accessible picnic tables, and the porta potties at Avery Beach were the only ones we saw along the trail that had a wheelchair accessible option.

The City Centre entrance point has a lot more rolling hills with steep inclines, and was the most difficult section of trail for me. I only made it about 0.5 km in before my tendons noped out.

One thing I should note is that the path isn’t really normal pavement, in the areas it is paved. It’s more of a chunky, rough pavement - and in places, tree roots growing up under the path have created big ridges across the path.

It shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you’re in a boot, using a cane, or on crutches, but it might not be THE most pleasant if you’re using a wheelchair.

It’s probably MOSTLY wheelchair *accessible*, just not necessarily wheelchair *friendly*.

Pets

Dogs are allowed on the trail, but must be leashed at all times and picked up after.

Owners should properly dispose of the droppings, and there are several garbage can / poop baggie dispensers along the way to help with that.

At the minimum, we saw them between the short section of boardwalk and Orchard Park, at the start of the trail from the City Centre lot, and one just past the picnic shelter, when accessing the trail via Avery Beach Park.

Park Store

There is no park store for Hunters Bay Trail.

Visitor Centre

There is no visitor center for Hunters Bay Trail.

Connectivity

On Rogers Wireless, we had really good cell reception and internet connectivity all along the trail.

Day Use Area

There are benches along the trail, including along the floating boardwalk section.

The only actual picnic area we saw was at the Avery Beach Park access point, where there was a little picnic shelter.

This shelter had 3 picnic tables - 2 of which were the wheelchair accessible types - and I think these were the only picnic tables we noticed along the trail.

Entertainment and Activity

Some information about the various activities and such that you can engage in while visiting Hunters Bay Trail:

Hiking

The signage and general info we’ve seen about this trail has given different trail lengths - 3.5 km end to end, or double that as a return trip.

I remember reading a suggestion that if the trail’s too long for you to do a return trip, the full length... that you should buddy up with someone, leave one car at one end, drive to the other, and walk the length of it.

Smart - we would definitely have done that, but we only had the one car with us!

Anyway, I wasn’t up for an entire return trip, so we decided to check out each of the 4 main access points and kind of do a ... buffet experience. A little sampling of the trail at each of those points, checking out the trail in each direction from the 2 middle access points.

Trail End & Orchard Park.

We started out at the Trail End parking lot, as this was closest to the campground and ALSO fit in best with our plans for after the walk. (We’d work our way into the city, before stopping at Bulk Barn and the grocery store).

The path down from that parking lot was STEEP, and I definitely didn’t look forward to the return trip up.

Soon though, we made it to the floating boardwalk section below, and walked along for a while - about 1.5 km in before turning around.

There were two sections of floating boardwalk, with some land in between. That section also hosted another entry point, Orchard Park.

The views on this end of the trail - Trail end to just beyond the shorter section of floating trail - were the nicest, IMHO. We got the over-water scenes, some fall colour tree canopy, a view of the highway overpass - all lovely.

The highway noise was pretty loud at times, but the scenery was definitely worth it.

Note: parts of the floating boardwalk can get slippery when wet. We wore our good hiking boots - which were very grippy - and had no problems slipping, aside from ONE spot where I almost wiped out, going down one of the metal ramps.

Avery Beach Park

This was probably the easiest section of trail we walked, if you’re including the access point. (The boardwalk section we started at was definitely the easiest, but getting down there was NOT!)

This section takes you though tree canopy with water views when heading to the left, meeting up with where we ended our first walk maybe ½ km in.

Going to the right from the Avery Beach parking lot takes you past a little marina - we didn’t end up going far in that direction, though.

As mentioned earlier, this entrance point was the most disability-friendly access and trail section.

Trail Entrance / City Centre

We ended where the trail technically starts, at the City Centre parking lot.

This trail starts out at a narrow spot of water, leading into Hunter’s Bay.

You get views of cottages and docks across the water, walk through some tree canopy, and pretty quickly come to an overhead railway bridge.

This was the most difficult section of trail, lots of ups and downs. I didn’t go very far - just half a kilometre or so - because the inclines were killing my ankles and knees.

Really beautiful, though!

Biking

The Hunters Bay Trail is a mixed use, shared trail. Cycling is welcomed, and I bet it would be a really nice trail for that.

It has some rolling hills and slightly rougher surface in areas, but nothing that I’d say would amount to anything approaching actual Mountain Biking.

Regular street bikes would be just fine on this trail.

We didn’t see any bike racks along the trail, but we might have missed them.

Swimming

Apparently the smaller boardwalk section is a popular place for swimming. It has an extended platform at one point, with little swim ladders down into the water at several points along that section of boardwalk.

This section of trail is most easily accessed via the Orchard Park entrance.

Then, Avery Beach is another swimming opportunity, theoretically. Maybe it was just the time of year, weather, and/or low water, it just didn’t seem like a BEACH-beach, you know?

There was a sandy area that looked like a beach volleyball court, just without the net - but it wasn’t right on the water. There also was a really small area of sandy water access, but it seemed too small/hidden to have a whole park named after it as a “beach”.

Most of the water access points were definitely part of boat launches or marina type spaces, so didn’t seem overly attractive / safe as swimming spots.

Weird!

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

We visited Hunters Bay Trail on a cool fall day that was windy and had rain looming, so the birding wasn’t great.

The best experience we had was seeing a Common Merganser swimming along the floating boardwalk, right next to us. They’re usually people-averse, but this one did not care at ALL that we were there. We’d never seen one so close before!

Other than that, we heard and/or saw: American Crow, American Goldfinch, American Robin, Black-Capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Common Raven, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal, and White-Breasted Nuthatch, .

There were also gulls flying ahead, but they were quiet and we didn’t get a good enough look to identify them.

Boating

There is a small boat launch and set of docks just off the parking lot at Avery Beach, with a permitted marina and more docks nearby.

This was the only boat access point we noticed along the trail.

Fishing

Apparently the floating dock section of the trail is a popular spot for fishing, and we also saw some spots between the two floating dock areas that also looked like they’d been used as fishing spots.

We also saw some people with fishing poles in the Avery Beach Park area, but we didn’t ask which area they were headed to.

Overall, though, Hunters Bay is known to be a great place for fishing, but I haven’t really been able to find much information on what fish are available!

In general, though, the region is known for having Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Splake, Walleye, and more.

Working Out

Just past the picnic shelter from the Avery Beach Parking Lot, we found an outdoor gym!

I always love to see these out in the wild, and they definitely seem to be becoming more and more common. Anyway, this one was an Apollo Multi-Gym, and had two equipment stations.

The first was a set of horizontal bars of varying heights. Someone was doing chin ups on one of the higher ones as we were leaving, and I was definitely eyeing it as a stretching rack.

The second station was a more traditional resistance training set up, with multiple exercise stations on the one apparatus.

One side had high and low pulley stations, one side had a platform and handles for a variety of exercises, and the third side had kind of a handing setup (Not sure how to describe that, it’s not one I tend to use!).

Each side had nice diagrams and descriptions of each of the exercises that could be performed using the equipment on that section.

Also, there was a sign at the trail access to the gym, with a QR code for more information and workouts - MoveFitnessPark.ca.

Educational & Cultural Opportunities

There were several educational signs along the trail, but mostly in and around the Avery Beach Park area.

The ones we saw covered topics like Cattails, Great Blue Herons, Native Plants, Pollinators, Porcupines, and Snapping Turtles.

Niantic Games

There were several Niantic Game Stops (Pokestops, Pokemon Gyms, Ingress Portals, etc) along the trail, with the highest concentration located in the area of Avery Beach Park.

We had no trouble loading Pokemon Go at any point along the trail, and used the map in the game as a trail map, to see what areas of interest were coming up.

In one case, I would have completely missed one of the educational signs, had I not seen that it existed via the Pokemon Go stop attached to it!

Final Thoughts

We LOVED this trail, and wish we’d known about it earlier - I don’t even know how many times we’ve been to Arrowhead at this point, not knowing this existed less than 10 minutes away!

This is probably one of THE most ADHD friendly trails we’ve ever seen, with completely different views and vibes the whole way.

Each of the access points provides a wildly different experience for anyone looking to do just a short section of trail, too. Love that variety!

We saw it just after peak fall colours, having not known about the trail on an earlier trip - 1.5 weeks before. At that point, the whole area was sunny and at peak fall colour - really kicking ourselves for missing that, I bet it was gorgeous.

Overall, we loved it... and we’re definitely looking forward to checking it out at other times of year, whenever we stay at Arrowhead.

More Near-North Ontario Provincial Parks & Places to See

Want to read some more about the parks we've camped and at places we've seen in Near-Northern Ontario? Here are some more posts!

Near-Northern Ontario Campground Reviews:

Arrowhead Provincial Park
Batman's Cottages & Campground
Chutes Provincial Park
Driftwood Provincial Park
Fairbank Provincial Park
Finlayson Point Provincial Park
Grundy Lake Provincial Park
Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park
Marten River Provincial Park
Mikisew Provincial Park
Killbear Provincial Park
Oastler Lake Provincial Park
Six Mile Lake Provincial Park
Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park

Near-Northern Ontario Places to See:

Big Chute Marine Railway
Bridal Veil Falls, Manitoulin Island
Cup and Saucer Trail, Manitoulin Island
Fielding Bird Sanctuary
French River Provincial Park
Hardy Lake Provincial Park
Misery Bay Provincial Park
Onaping Falls
Oxtongue River-Ragged Falls Provincial Park
Screaming Heads

Want to explore beyond Near-Northern Ontario? Check out our full list of Campground Reviews, Ontario Waterfalls, and other Places to See.

We also have a ton of Camping Recipes to cook up, while on your adventures!