Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park

Two years in a row now, we’ve made a point of stopping off at Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park on our big tour of Northern Ontario.

Figure it’s about time to write about it, eh?

Ouimet Canyon is a large gorge, located about an hour east of Thunder Bay, and about the same from Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.

That last part is key, as this is a day use only park - there’s no overnight camping there. So, you’ll definitely want to plan this as a field trip white at - or en route to - your actual stop.

Anyway, it’s a fantastic little park to go stretch your legs, and enjoy some spectacular views of the canyon.

The viewing platforms are just a short hike from the parking lot, and a pretty easy walk at that.

Once you’re at one of the two lookout platforms, you’re treated to some amazing views of a 150 metre wide canyon that is anywhere from 100 metres to 1000 km deep, depending on where you’re getting your info from.

(No, that’s not a typo on my part... but more on that in a bit!).

The walk - and canyon views - are particularly nice as the leaves are changing. While the canyon has predominantly yellow leaves in the fall, the walk TO the canyon is much more colourful!

Anyway, let us tell you all about it!

The Basics:

Location Name: Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park
Address: Greenwich Lake Rd, Pass Lake, ON P0T 2M0 (Click for the Google Maps location)
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/ouimetcanyon/
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: Nature Reserve
Season: May 17, 2024 to October 15, 2024

Logistics

Some basic information to help you plan your trip to Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park:

Registration and Check In

The park was not staffed on either of our visits, and payment is via a little self-serve ... post?

Parking is $5, basically on the honour system.

Maps and Signage

This is a really straightforward, linear park - you don’t really need much in the way of signage to get around.

That said, there IS a bit of a weird situation with the park maps.

Out on the trail, there’s a simple, accurate map of the main area of the park:

This map shows basically all you’ll need to know about getting around the park, once you’ve gotten up to the main parking lot. (The main lot is about 3.5 km from the park entrance).

That said, IN the parking lot, there’s another map.

This map includes 2 other trails that I can’t find any information about - one across from the trailer parking area, and one that’s north of the parking lot - on the far end of Wellburn Lake... with no clear way of actually getting there.

Not sure what that’s all about, but would love to hear from anyone who’s been up that way!

There’s some other signage weirdness to discuss.

At the closest platform, there’s a sign that talks about the depth of the canyon, and the arctic plants growing at the bottom.

Someone misplaced a decimal place somewhere along the line, as the signage claimed that the base of the canyon was 1000 km down.

No, you’re not misreading that... no, we didn’t misread it on the sign either, as that “factoid” was repeated elsewhere on the sign.

The more you know?

Anyway, we noticed this in 2023 when we visited, had a good laugh about it, and assumed it would be corrected at some point.

... nope. Still there, a year later!

Parking

As you come partway up Ouimet Canyon Road - en route to main parking lot - you’ll come upon a sign that says there's a steep grade, and to unhook your trailers now.

There’s a small parking lot off to the left immediately after that sign, to park your trailers. A few notes:

Once you get into that parking lot, it looks like there’s a loop in the back. It’s NOT - that’s a separate entry to the lot, shortly after that first left. You can treat the whole thing like a loop, though.

The little road you see off to the left when you enter the parking lot from that first exit isn’t a return loop, it’s a really short dead end.

After you ditch your trailer - in our case, we ditched the RV and took our unhooked car - you’ll go just over another 2 km, and you’ll be telling yourself “this isn’t THAT steep, we would have been fine”, etc... the whole way.

And that’s likely true. I know we definitely would have made it ok, towing the car with our RV.

The thing is, the parking lot at the canyon is quite small, and isn’t set up for trailers, etc. Really only regular car parking spots, though there is a loop at the end to turn a bigger rig around.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see ANY mention of having to unhitch trailers to visit the park when I originally looked into it, so we were a bit salty about that addition to our schedule.

Washrooms

There’s a short trail from the parking lot, to a vault toilet building with 2 stalls. The one I used was in moderately decent condition.

It wasn’t the scariest outhouse I’ve been to - and it actually had some light getting in - but it was still a very rustic outhouse.

Accessibility

The vault toilets are designated barrier free, as is one of the two paths to the viewing platforms.

Basically, picture a loop, with a trail connecting that loop to the parking lot. ¾ of the loop is designated “barrier free”, but about ¼ of it is not.

So, you can get to both platforms without travelling on that ¼ of the loop, you just have to go the long way around, and look at it like a big “C”, rather than a loop.

Anyway, we feel like “barrier free” - as it relates to that path - really means “This way doesn’t have the REALLY rough spot.”

That said, the “barrier free” path is very uneven in places, steep in places, and has deep ruts from apparent water erosion in places.

Probably ok for an all terrain wheelchair, but be prepared for a bumpy ride.

May I suggest a little Mohombi for theme music?

Anyway, the barrier-free trail should be easy enough for anyone in a walking boot, using a cane, etc.

Park Store / Visitor Centre

There was a small building in the parking lot that looked to have been an information centre or something in the past.

It was closed, with a sign directing people to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park for any souvenir purchases.

Day Use Area

As previously mentioned, Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park is a day-use park, so basically the whole place is a day-use area!

I tend to use “day use area” as shorthand for “picnic area”, though - and yeah, there’s one of those at Ouimet. Just off the parking lot, there’s a tiny picnic shelter and an extra picnic table or two.

It’s across the parking lot from the outhouses, and.. That’s about it.

Connectivity

We had spotty reception during both of our visits (on Rogers).

We had OK reception at the platforms and in the parking lot, but mostly not anywhere on the road or middle of the trails.

Pets

There is no info about dogs on the park website, nor any signage (for or against) at the park.

We did see a few dogs on the trails, though, so I think it’s a safe bet that they’re allowed.

I would assume the standard provincial park rules apply: Leashed at all times, picked up after, not allowed to bother other people or animals.

Miscellaneous

Back to the road situation...

The 3.5 km of road to get from the park entrance to the main parking lot is very narrow, twisty, and QUITE steep in places.

When planning your stay, be sure to allot more time to get to the Ouimet Canyon parking lot, than Google suggests.

This goes double if you’re bringing an RV or trailer with you.

Entertainment and Activity

Some information on the things you can do at Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park.

Hiking

So, first up... a bit of fact checking.

The park’s website calls the trail a 1 km loop - this is not the case.

It’s 0.5 km to the first - closest - platform, so the only way you’re getting a 1 km loop out of this is if you take the non accesible route, go to the first platform, then turn around and go back the way you came.

Of course, this means skipping the bulk of the trail, the second (and nicer, IMHO) platform. It also turns it into an out-and-back trail, rather than a loop... so I’m not sure where they came up with “1 km loop”.

Anyway, I digress. We did the full loop - including going out onto both lookout platforms - on both trips, and each time it came to just over 2 km from the main parking lot.

There’s a short section of basic trail from the parking lot, leading towards a boardwalk and bridge.

The split - barrier free vs DO NOT BRING A WHEELCHAIR DOWN HERE - happens pretty much right after you cross the bridge.

Either way you go, guests are told to stay to the marked trails for their own safety.

On our second trip - the one pictured throughout this post - we went the “barrier free” route to start.

That is, we went straight at the trail split, directly out to the furthest platform.

Then we walked to the other platform, and took the non-barrier-free section to rejoin the trail at the split.

Indian Head - at the furthest platform - was a cool spectacle to see.

It’s so tall and thin, it looks to defy gravity, like it could topple at any moment. Yet, it’s probably been there thousands of years.

Once we saw the description calling it “Indian head” we could see the resemblance to a head.

Anyway, this was my favourite of the two platforms, with nicer, panoramic views of the wide gorge.

From there, we continued on to the other platform.

There was a short, well-traveled trail off to the left. This was probably the reason for the trail warnings - it opens out to a fabulous view of the gorge, but with no barrier at all.

DEFINITELY keep an eye on your kids and dogs when walking the trails!

After a quick stop at the other platform - and a surprisingly pleasant chat with an American couple who brought up the election! - we headed across a little foot bridge.

From there, it was up a rough embankment to get to the bridge, and the rest of the boardwalk trail back to the car.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

So, the main nature attraction of the park - the rare arctic flora growing in the unique environment at the bottom of the canyon - isn’t something you’re likely to actually see.

100 metres, 1000 km - either way, you’re going to need a hell of a camera lens to spot rare alpine flowers on the canyon floor!

Bird watching, however, is a much more doable pursuit in terms of getting your nature on at Ouimet.

We saw Blue Jays and a Common Raven, and heard some Golden-Crowned Kinglets near the second platform, and along the boardwalk section of the trail.

Apparently there are Peregrine Falcons that sometimes nest in the canyon, we didn’t see any on either trip.

Anyway, across from the trailer parking, there’s a short walk to a little viewing platform over a pond and marshy area. That would probably be a good birding spot.

Photography

Obviously, the canyon is a great place to get some nature and landscape photography in.

Just a word of advice - and this goes in general, not just for photography - the weather situation can WILDLY impact your views and photos.

The first time we went, it was overcast and with some degree of fog settling on the canyon. The photos from that trip were all but unusable, for our purposes. (Nicely creepy looking, though!)

The second time we went, we went later in the afternoon than we hoped, which caused DEEP shadows on one side of the canyon.

If you’re looking for clear photos, you’re going to want to aim for a clear, sunny day, with the sun almost directly overhead.

Niantic Games

There’s a Pokegym and at least one stop / Ingress Portal, but fairly spotty cell phone coverage.

Final Thoughts

Really cool little park, and I feel it was especially nice as we managed to hit it in what appeared to be the peak of its fall colours.

The second platform was better than the first, in our opinion, so if you’re only going to do one, do that one. You can access it straight out the accessible route, once you cross the bridge.

Given the distance from the highway, the condition of the road, and the need to unhook the trailer to continue to the canyon area, I kind of doubt we’ll be stopping in here again on future trips, but I’m really glad we got to see it.

The variety of natural features in Ontario never ceases to amaze us, and Northern Ontario is particularly spectacular, with the granite ledges along the highways, the views along Lake Superior, all the waterfalls, etc.

We love that a relatively short drive off a main highway can take you to something like this! Stunning views.

We’ll probably never get out to see the Grand Canyon, so Ouimet Canyon is as close as we’re going to get.

And hey, can the Grand Canyon say it’s 1000 km deep? LOL!

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.

Amethyst Mine Panorama
Batchawana Bay
Big Bay, Ontario
Bruce Peninsula National Park
Canada's Dinosaur Park
Chippewa Falls
Falls Reserve Conservation Area
Flowerpot Island
Gariepy Creek Falls
Menesetung Bridge
Mink Creek Falls
Onaping Falls
Petroglyphs Provincial Park
Point Pelee National Park
Provoking Falls
Sand River Falls
Scenic Caves Nature Adventures
Scenic High Falls
Screaming Heads
Spirit Rock Conservation Area
Temagami Fire Tower