May 9, 2018
10 min. read
Lake Superior Provincial Park is easy to access: the Trans-Canada Highway runs right through it on its way from Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa. It’s also home to nearly 40,000 acres of incredible scenery and 11 trails that will take you along the lake’s coastline and make you feel like you’re in the middle of the wilderness. Here are four great hikes to enjoy in the park.
Take a short walk to amazing sights on the Agawa Rock Pictographs trail
Glimpse a part of Ojibwe heritage on rock faces that tower over Lake Superior. This collection includes red-ochre drawings thought to date from the 17th and 18th centuries and is one of the only pictograph sites in Ontario you can reach on foot. The loop trail (open just from May to September) takes about 30 minutes round trip—and should only be attempted when the lake is calm.
Trail length: 0.5 kilometres
Best for: Families with older children. Though the trail isn’t very long, you’ll need to climb onto rock shelves by the water to actually view the pictographs, which can be slippery when wet from rain or the waves.
Hike a path to incredibly old rocks on the Noisy Bay trail
Follow this trail from the highway to Noisy Lake, across Noisy Creek and down to the shore of Lake Superior. Here, you can stroll a greenstone beach made up of rocks whose age is estimated at 2.7 billion years. The trail is currently out and back, but the park plans to upgrade it to a loop as part of the celebrations for the 125th anniversary of Ontario Parks.
Trail length: 4 kilometres
Best for: Road-trippers needing to stretch their legs. This trail is just long enough to give you a break from driving for an hour or two, and given its location at the northern edge of the park, it’s a good place to stop before pushing on to Wawa.
Traverse the forest to an iconic lookout on the Nokomis trail
Wind through boreal forest and cross the stones of the Old Woman River Valley as you climb to a scenic overlook over the course of a few hours. Snap a photo of the 200-metre-high cliffs across the bay, said to resemble an old woman’s face, before looping back to a sandy beach where you can dip your feet during the brief Northern Ontario summer.
Trail length: 5 kilometres
Best for: Day hikers who brought sturdy footwear; as the park’s website notes, the trail’s final descent is steep.
Spend a day (or two) along the river on the Towab trail
Challenge yourself on a roller-coaster of a trail (read: you’ll have to climb lots of hills) that often parallels the Agawa River and was named for a local Ojibwe guide. Turn around at Burnt Rock Pool, a wider section of the river, for a day trip that takes between two and four hours; if you go all the way to the end, you’ll reach the 25-metre-high Agawa Falls.
Trail length: 24 kilometres
Best for: Experienced hikers who’ve come prepared. If you want to go all the way to Agawa Falls, park staff suggest staying overnight at one of the campsites along the trail.
Take a hike
Follow one of the park’s prettiest trails to Orphan Lake in the summer 2018 issue of CAA Magazine, plus find more ideas for warm-weather activities like family-friendly biking and great road trips.
Image credits: Courtesy of Lake Superior Provincial Park