Old Woman Bay

We first visited Old Woman Bay last fall.

After spending a few days in the Agawa Bay Campground - and staying in that area of the park - it was time to head north along the Trans-Canada Highway, en route to our next destination.

Before starting our day’s adventure, we had to check out the last of the 3 main day use areas in Lake Superior Provincial park - Old Woman Bay.

Like the Rabbit Blanket Lake Campground, it’s located clear on the other side of this gigantic park from where we were staying - near the northern boundary of the park.

Not exactly close proximity, but hey - if we weren’t planning to drive up there anyway, we would have made a special trip to see it!

About 2 hours north of Sault Ste. Marie, this bay is known for its long sandy beach, dense forests, and a large rock formation that is said to look like the face of the old woman the bay is named for.

Whether you can discern a face or not - I couldn’t! - this is a gorgeous GEM of an area, really showcasing the true beauty of Algoma.

We visited in mid September, as the leaves were just starting to change colour - it’s clear to us that this would be a great spot year round.

I can picture it in spring, as the colours start to brighten... in the summer, as a beach destination for families, and even in the winter, with a chill in the air and snow capping the surrounding cliffs.

*happy sigh*.

Anyway, let us tell you all about it!

The Basics:

Location Name: Old Woman Bay, Lake Superior Provincial Park
Address: Algoma, Unorganized, North Part, ON, Canada (Click that link for the Google Maps location!)
Website: N/A
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2024 Day Use Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations to book your daily vehicle permits.
Park Classification: Natural Environment
Season:: May 3, 2024 to October 20, 2024

Logistics

Some information to help you plan your visit to Old Woman Bay:

Registration and Check In

There is no gate house, and this day use area doesn’t appear to be staffed.

There IS a self serve kiosk thing, much like the one at Batchawana Bay.

To access it, you take the short driving loop, rather than heading straight towards the beach.

As we didn’t need to pay - we had a current camping pass AND a season pass for Ontario Parks - we didn’t make use of the kiosk.

Maps and Signage

Signage definitely leaves a bit to be desired. There’s a loop as you pull into this area, which looks like it should probably be a one way thing... but not labeled as such.

When you exit the loop, headed towards the beach area, there’s parking in front of you, then a roadway on either side. No indication of whether that’s parking, washrooms, or what.

Also, there’s no indication of whether there’s any trailer-suitable parking, and if so... where it might be.

Spoiler: There isn’t.

Connectivity

Cellphone reception was very spotty on our first trip, and completely non-existent on our second visit.

Washrooms

There are at least a couple of vault toilets in the Old Woman Bay section of the park - both off to the right, as you approach the beach, as well as a larger building that has composting toilets.

That building is located in the loop as you enter the park, to the left of the roadway that goes straight into the beach area.

Accessibility

Old Woman Bay is one of those cases where... an attempt was made.

The beach area itself is 100% *not* wheelchair accessible. It’s down an embankment of sand, which - truth be told - I was having some difficulty getting up and down over.

On our second trip, I was happy to see they’d added in a Mobi-Mat ... but it’s super short and just overlooks the beach, rather than getting you down onto it.

Finally, there’s the matter of the washroom.

The building up front - with the composting toilets - has a stall marked as being accessible, and it IS up an accessible trail.

BUT - the door of the wheelchair accessible stall doesn’t close all the way, and it doesn’t have a handle on the inside to pull it closed.

If you don’t have someone with you to either stand guard or let you in/out... well, be prepared to be on display.

Pets

As with the rest of Lake Superior Provincial Park, dogs must be kept on a leash at all times, including at the dog beach in the north end of the beach.

Dogs are not allowed on the main beach area, but they are allowed on the trails in the vicinity of Old Woman Bay, also - just leashed!

It was wild to see a woman walk right past a “No Dogs” sign, drop her dog’s leash, and stand there while he relieved himself on the beach. Right there.

Then she wandered around while he ran ahead, leash-free on the main beach area.

Don’t be like this woman. UGH. I hate entitlement mentality!

Parking

Our first visit was in the RV, and it was not a great experience, between the parking layout and the utter lack of signage.

We had to pull over in a not-great spot leading into the Old Woman Bay parking area, run out and try to look down both roads, lest we get stuck in a spot and unable to turn around.

We ended up opening Pokemon Go to get an overview of the streets (one of which actually looked to be a trail, rather than a road - in person, anyway!).

That’s how we found out that one had a loop that we should be able to turn around in (to the right - I’m going to call this the “North Parking”), so that’s the way we went.

The loop was tight - but manageable - though there wasn’t really anywhere for us to park legally / politely in that section.

It was relatively empty in that area of the park - early on a Thursday morning in September - so we pulled over and quickly ran out to grab some photos.

I was really surprised at the lack of accessible parking for campers and such. This seems to be a bigger draw than Batchawana Bay was, and they were definitely set up for trailers and motorhomes!

Basically, if you’re in a vehicle that needs more than a single regular parking space and can have issues turning around, etc... you might want to skip this area. We were unable to find a nearby option that was suitable for RVs.

SO, to put the information out there that we did not have:

The right / North Parking - described above - is where you’ll find the dog beach and the Barrier Free spot.

Turning to the LEFT, you’ll go through what I’ll call the “Central Parking Lot”, onto another small lot - which I refer to as the South Parking.

These are small and don’t have a ton of room to turn around, but if you’re driving a small RV, you should be fine:

During out second visit - in our car! - a few RVs pulled in, including a large, bus-style one.

They pulled around in the entrance loop, and parked close to the road. It worked fine, but it’s not a marked space.

Ever since getting a ticket for accidentally parking somewhere wrong at a provincial park, I’m paranoid about unmarked parking spots!

Day Use Area

Picnic tables are located throughout the area, mostly right out on the beach.

Yes, there are a couple picnic tables in the front loop - skip those. They’re pretty boring compared to the other options!

Down the little road to the North Parking, there’s a little trail out to the beach, leading to a really secluded couple of picnic tables, surrounded by trees.

When I saw this last year, I thought that this was probably the cutest, most perfect picnic spot I’ve ever seen!

It opened out onto the beach, looked like it would have been a fabulous place for a family to enjoy a relatively private picnic, while also taking in the beauty of the lake:

On our second visit, I got to explore the picnic areas down on the other side - along the South Parking area.

SO. MANY. CUTE. SPOTS.

Seriously. Old Woman Bay in general may just be the best place for a picnic, full stop. Just a ton of really glorious picnic nooks, most of which are overlooking the bay.

Just look:

Miscellaneous

Old Woman Bay faces almost directly West, and would be an amazing place to watch the sun set.

Also, in terms of beach size: It took me about 45 minutes and just over 1.5 km to walk to the far north side of the beach, back to the main parking area, then out past the south parking area, and back.

Probably could have done it faster, but that sand REALLY slowed me down in spots, and I was taking photos for you guys to see!

Entertainment and Activity

Hiking

There are a few walking paths at Old Woman Bay, but mostly just connecting beach to washroom areas and such. Cute, though!

There’s one from the South Parking to the building with the composting toilets that feels like you’re in a completely different place - REALLY green, it felt lush and sort of tropical.

Wish I got a photo - here’s one of the other walking paths, though:

Of course, the Nokomis Trail is known as one of the top 5 day hikes in all of Canada, and there’s easy access to the trailhead, right across the highway from the Old Woman Bay parking area.

Porter did that trail as I explored Old Woman Bay, and he LOVED it.

You can see what he said about it on our Agawa Bay Campground Review!

Swimming

OMG the BEACH!

We’d been to Katherine Cove - and waded in the mouth of the river at Sand River Falls - but Old Woman Bay Beach is a whole other level!

I’m not into lake swimming in general, but the Great Lakes are a big exception to that. I love Lake Huron, for instance, and Burlington Beach (Lake Ontario) near our house is pretty great.

Old Woman Bay is *glorious*.

The sand varies wildly from fine sand in some places, to more coarse sand in others, and more like gravel off to the north side of the beach.

The bay is protected from the main body of Superior, and the shallow water tends to be much calmer than other options.

The water is SO SPARKLING CLEAR. Just gorgeous - What a great place to swim!

Note: During the summer, you can visit the Ontario Parks Alerts Page for water quality information.

They seem to stop testing in August, though.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

Going to be honest here, I was so distracted by that crystal clear, sparkling water... that I completely forgot to look up!

I had the Merlin app running, though - as did Porter, on the Nokomis Trail across the highway.

Between the two of use, we either heard or saw: American Pipit, Blue Jay, Cedar Waxwing, Common Raven, Downy Woodpecker, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Parula, Pine Siskin, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, White-Throated Sparrow, and White-Winged Crossbill.

Final Thoughts

Gorgeous, gorgeous bay, amazing views, really clean air and water, would be an absolutely ideal place to spend a day. It’s a relatively small section of the coast, but there’s so much to see - SO much beauty to take in.

... as long as you’re able to park there!

The parking situation is such a shame, because they definitely could have built out the parking to accommodate campers, trailers, etc.

For our lifestyle, it’s a bit far to drive as a there-and-back while staying in the Agawa Bay campground, which is why we planned to visit it - camper and all - on our way out of the park that first time.

Had we been staying in the Rabbit Blanket Lake Campground - like 5 minutes down the road! - we definitely would have driven over in the car and spent a good chunk of our stay hanging out in the bay.

The second time was as part of a bigger road trip in the car - checking out Rabbit Blanket Lake and going out to Scenic High Falls - so that worked well.

In the future, though, we’ll probably work logistics out to make a dedicated trip to go relax on Old Woman Beach.

Absolutely stunning!

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
Petroglyphs Provincial Park
Point Pelee National Park
Provoking Falls
Scenic Caves Nature Adventures
Scenic High Falls
Screaming Heads
Spirit Rock Conservation Area
Temagami Fire Tower