Algonquin Park

We are back from a great weekend. The weather was spectacular: almost too warm for this time of year but clear and sunny the whole time. Up until our drive home yesterday, we were a bit disappointed with the colour. We learned that the reds had peaked a week earlier and then been blown off by significant winds. But then we encountered some great views and colour on the way home yesterday, which completed a wonderful weekend getaway. More of that later.

After driving to the cottage on Thursday, we headed to Algonquin Park on Friday. It’s a huge provincial park, 50% larger than the state of Delaware, located more or less between southern and northern Ontario. Most of it is wilderness and a special opportunity for adventurous canoeists and back country campers. In fact, a long long time ago, I canoed into the back country and camped by a lake for several days. Our water supply was the the pure aqua of lake itself.

However, there is also a highway through the southern reaches of the park and trails that the less hardy can walk and enjoy. There are also lakes and picnic sites right off the highway that don’t require any hiking at all to enjoy. We stopped to view Brewer Lake, but I thought I would share a view away from the lake of the highway and a rock outcrop on the other side. Precambrian rock outcrops are common on the Canadian Shield which covers approximately 50% of Canada. Sometimes the rock is colourful and sometimes it is dull. In this case it is somewhere in between the two extremes.

Cuppa and I did take a short but fairly vigorous (for us) hike through the woods to the top of a cliff which offered a grand view. This is a picture of part of the path.

After a rather strenuous uphill climb, we reached the edge of the cliff and enjoyed a rather glorious view across the valley.