Algonquin Provincial Park

Algonquin Park is absolutely stunning, especially in the fall. The vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows of the trees make for an unforgettable experience. I hiked the Centennial Ridges Trail, and the views were incredible—sweeping vistas of lakes and forests bathed in autumn colors. The trails are well-maintained and offer something for every level, from easy walks to more challenging hikes. It's a perfect spot for anyone who loves nature, wildlife, and beautiful scenery. Whether you're a seasoned hiker or just looking for a peaceful escape, Algonquin is a must-visit in the fall!

One of my favorite provincial parks! I've been back country, portaging, all along hwy 60 at numerous campgrounds, doesn't matter where you go all people and staff members are very pleasant. Facilities are clean and trails are well maintained. Remember people, what you pack in, you pack out! :)

One of the most beautiful places in Ontario. It’s pretty popular and famous for its fall colorful scenery. We drove about 300 km for one day camping in the park. Not only at our destination, but also along the way, we enjoy and explore the red and yellow mountains and forests, and blue and clear lakes. Love the splendid and vibrant nature! I took lots of photos and videos, sharing with my friends and you.

It’s hard to describe the beauty of this park unless you’re actually there. I went solo in November and it was beautiful. A lot more quiet than the summer and NO BUGS and if you’re looking for a place to get away from all the loudness and hassle in the city, you will find it here. The only thing you’ll hear is your breath and the occasional sounds from wildlife.

A trip to Algonquin Provincial Park at the peak of Fall colours is awesome. Luckily we visited yesterday(Oct 7th 2024) and driving through the highway 60 was breathtaking with the vibrancy of colors on both sides of the road. We covered Hardwood, Lookout and Logging Museum trails plus few other drive through side roads to lake areas. The weather was quite sunny and the blue sky with white clouds added the vibrancy to a different level. In a day trip more than this you cannot make. Next trip we will plan spending more number of days.

Algonquin park is breathtaking in the fall, with the stunning colors of maple trees painting the landscape in vibrant hues. The crisp air adds a refreshing touch to your walk, and the trails are perfect for a peaceful, scenic escape. Whether you’re hiking or simply taking in the beauty, this park offers a serene retreat with its captivating autumn atmosphere.

The autumn colors are beautiful, as you go from trail to trail you experience the true beauty of nature always a different sight. The trails are well maintained. With a few exceptions the park is dog friendly, just keep your pet on a leash. Check the park in advance and plan ahead what trails you want to visit, if a parking lot is full have alternative ready. We will be back…

Algonquin provincial park is a great place to come enjoy all season with hiking trails, camping areas, and even horseback riding. Enjoy the forest sent and view. There are even Atv tracks, so I am sure that ATV are also allowed. I really recommend coming here if you have nowhere to go.

Park is nice, but has signs of overuse. Washrooms are kept clean. Some people abuse the facilities. I watched a guy come use the restroom, wash his hands and leave not turning the tap off. BEWARE... there is one spot in the park to get potable water, with no signage to tell you so....until you get to the campground and have to turn around go back on the highway to fill, and especially to dump your waste water.AND at the dump station there are only two dumps! We are waiting in a long lineup to dump and some people are very slow at going thru the process. I'm not amazed at any of this as it is run by the government. This is Ontarios premier park and not run very premier ....

Both times we camped there we lost power. The last time we woke up with no heat and it was -3. The bathrooms weren't working and the toilets were overflowing. Absolutely disgusting and we won't be back.

Got a daily parking permit online to park along one of their highway 60 parking lots. We explored the lookout trail, it was an easy 30 minute hike to the top with a great view of the forest and lake. Then we went canoeing at Lake Opeongo. Algonquin was super scenic and has lots of hiking trails, can't wait to explore some of their other trails next time.

This is my favourite of the 340 provincial parks in Ontario! Algonquin is also the oldest in this province. My sweetie and I took a day trip here even though it's a 3-hour one way drive. We wanted to see the autumn colours of the forest canopy; plus or minus a few days could make or break the viewing pleasure. General Note: Algonquin Provincial Park via Hwy 60 is 56 km from the West Gate (marker 0 km) to the East Gate (marker 56 km). Attractions, lakes & trails are identified by huge road signs. We purchased a $21 Vehicle Day Pass online to visit and use the provincial park facilities. It was let's go from there. There was the West Gate entrance. Over a 7.5 hour period, our adventure included enjoyment of: Two Rivers Store & Cafe, Two Rivers Trail, Spruce Bog Boardwalk, Algonquin Logging Museum, Brewer Lake, Magasin Lake Opeongo Store, and Lookout Trail. After a beautiful, terrific, fun-packed day, the trip home began at the East Gate exit. Heed the call of nature! If even for a day.

This amazing park has a little bit for everyone. From a novice camper to the more experienced, there is an abundance of activities to do. The park is vast, meaning it will take multiple trips throughout many years to actually explore what it has to offer. Algonquin is truly a great experience for many and definitely should be put on a bucket list of places to visit if in Ontario.

A must visit for all the outdoorsy people in Ontario. The Algonquin Provincial Park offers breathtaking views and a plethora of outdoor activity opportunities. The 45-55km ON-60 sector, stretching from Dwight to Whitney, is the only highway that intersects the Provincial Park. You won't find any gas stations in this stretch of highway that crosses the park. Your best options for refuelling would be either at Whitney or at Dwight. Permits to cross park were a necessity until last year but so far this year there are no permits being dished out. A campsite reservation comes with a car permit. Speaking of camping, Algonquin Provincial Park offers multiple campsites, most of them are located on the shores of one of many lakes in the Muskoka Region. For more info on campsites and parks rules and regulations visit Ontarioparks.com We camped at the Pog Lake campground. The pics attached in this review are from the Campsite A. Each campsite has pretty decent area facing the lake. The washrooms & showers were clean and Well maintained. The only drawback was that it took us sometime to find our campsite. They could add more signage and directions but other than that I can only hope for longer weekends to enjoy!! Highly recommended.

To up my game on my poetry reviews trend A ballade for this wondrous provincial park What a beautiful forest to explore for hours on end As others have mentioned the 60 is your best way to start Being here only for one day we explored just a small part But enough to know we'll be back for sure, it's guaranteed Wanting to camp, booking early would have been smart Instead we camped at Bonnechere and drove an hour here to see The natural beauty as mentioned by other friends So we hiked for the day, making use of the chart Hitting up 3 trails which others did recommend On a day where it rained from morning until dark Moderate trails with heights not for the faint of heart Gorgeous terrain of lakes, mountains and trees From the giant white pines to the bright white of the birch bark And breathtaking lookouts are sure to please Trails which allow dogs, that wind and ascend Each step earning a view that ignites a satisfying spark Over rocks and edging cliffs, back down and up again Such an amazing experience on which to embark For the breathtaking views straight outta hallmark Though the highway's loud sound is unfortunate indeed I still can't bring myself to deduct any marks This place made our trip worth it, everyone had agreed We all want to go back, actually we didn't want to depart With tourist stops, more hiking trails and many more than one beach We want to camp here and enjoy even more of this park Next year we'll book early spring to hopefully succeed. ---------------- Installment 23 poetry reviews Whew. Well that took some effort...and I know I messed up a bit but yeeeeesh, you try writing a ballade for a provincial park lol. Hope you enjoyed anyways and that I conveyed how much it is SO worth it to check this place out. We paid 17$ for a whole day access (Aug '18), so even if you don't wana camp you should go. (It's 17$ for the car pass, everyone in your car has access, you place it on your dashboard.) We didn't really see any wildlife at all but it poured rain the whole day. And despite that bumming us out we still totally loved our day here hiking, best day of our trip. Animals we saw: ducks, geese, one kool loon which called back and forth with us, plenty of tiny other birds and blue jays. C'est tout. Trails we did: - Hardwood Lookout: we took the pro tip from the other Yelpers (Thx guys!) And went the opposite way on the trail straight to the lookout, simple and totally worth it, even in the rain. - Hemlock Bluff: we did this whole trail and LOVED IT!!! Amazing surprising gorgeous views from "posts 5-8" (clearly marked on trail map at start of trail). Kinda super treacherous in the rain...and definitely played on my fear of heights on more than one occasion. Not for amateur hikers or small kids, potential to literally fall off a cliff. But worth it if you follow the trail closely and mind your footing. - Beaver Pond: At this point it was pouring like crazy but we still did "posts 1&2" and went back the other way and did the last 2 posts on the loop, really beautiful views from different angles of the pond. Again in the rain it was a bit dangerous but I don't think this one woulda been that bad in good weather (keep in mind we didn't do the whole thing). P.S. The highway noise does really suck, so if you're really woodsy you can go ahead and enjoy their many, many, many backcountry trails and sites.

Great park for trailers or tenting. Some real nice site right on the water. Great canoeing location.

Very good experience in winter. Fire, sausages, full moon and night in a yurt, all ingredients to have nice dreams. The hall and the park are beautiful too! Inside you can discover animals in 3D! And the story of Algonquins etc... The shop sells very instructive books and originals gifts. Outside, on the trails, lot of birds which comes on your fingers, it's crazy! And lot of squealers too, and by night, awesome, the red fox at the door of the yurt! A place to be by summer like by winter!

Jimi S summed Algonquin up perfectly: it is a mecca for anyone interested in the outdoors or nature. It may not be the most awe inspiring or exotic park on the planet but Algonquin earns an easy five stars regardless for its untouched beauty, sheer size, diversity of activities, abundance of wildlife, and because there's no better place in Ontario to get that back country feeling. This park is a total treasure and represents everything that I love about Northern Ontario. A day trip is too short for Algonquin if you're coming from Toronto. You'll want to spend a weekend at least. Backcountry camping and car camping sites are abundant. Backcountry sites are accessible by canoe or backpacking. This is the best way to experience the beauty and solitude of Algonquin. For car camping your best best is one of the many campgrounds along Highway 60. For me, a canoe will always be the best way to explore Algonquin. I doubt there's any other place in the world with better flat water paddling. There are literally thousands of kilometres of canoe route. The whole park is a network of pristine lakes, ponds, rivers, and creeks; a canoe will open this world up to you. Trips of any length and varying degrees of difficulty are possible. There are many outfitters nearby that can rent you a canoe and, if you need it, camping gear. Canoe Lake on Highway 60 is a great place to start if you've never been to Algonquin. Hiking is also good in Algonquin. There is a variety of day hiking and overnight backpacking available. If you're planning on backcountry camping I'd stick to canoe tripping. For day hikes, the Highway 60 corridor has tons of options. For a short walk check out the Spruce Bog Boardwalk and for a longer (~10km) hike try the Mizzy Lake Trail. Wildlife viewing in Algonquin is excellent. I can almost guarantee you'll see moose, especially in the spring by the road. You've also got a decent shot at beavers, otters, deer, and various turtles, snakes, and other critter. There'll be lots of birds to keep you company as well: great blue herons, spruce grouse, loons, mergansers, gray jays, and many others. Visually the park is not the most awe inspiring. The landscape here isn't nearly as impressive, for example, Banff or, closer to home, Kilarney. It's a more subdued and subtle beauty in Algonquin. But, I can tell you sitting by the fire on a secluded Algonquin lake watching the sun go down is one of the most amazing experiences ever. Practicalities: If you're coming from Toronto ignore the reference to Whitney, Ontario in the location for this entry. You'll want to take Highway 11 up to Huntsville and enter Algonquin via Highway 60. The Highway 60 corridor is only one small piece of the park but it's the best place to start if you're new to Algonquin. Pro Tip: Check out http://www.algonquinmap.com/ for a free, online map of Algonquin including very detailed canoe route information. Great for inspiration and trip planning.

There is no review for this park yet? This is weird. Established in 1893, Algonquin Provincial Park is the oldest provincial park in Canada. It is also the largest public park in Ontario. It is not the most beautiful park within the Ontario Provincial Park system, in my opinion (Killarney takes that crown), but it is the most versatile thanks to its bountiful size. It can satisfy your need for car camping, inland camping (both extremely beautiful), hiking (many short to long trails with stunning views; Lake of Two Rivers Trail is easy, and Centennial Trail is my personal favourite), biking (nice biking trails among campgrounds plus great to bike along the paved roads), canoeing/kayaking (Lake of Two Rivers, need I say more?), motor boating (Rock Lake), fishing (go for it; remember to bring your fishing license), beaching (at least 1 beach per campground), wildlife watching (I recommend Mizzy Lake Trail), star gazing, children education program, backpacking, etc.. In fact, you don't even need to bring equipment to camp here: there are many outfitter stores nearby that will rent you to whole nine yard required. As well, Huntsville is just 30 minutes away where you can buy your food and beverage. To some, Algonquin seems to be too civilized, as you can have 3 meals a day in a restaurant inside the park. As far as I concern, this is the easiest park for rookies to lose their camping virginities. It just has a big commercial support system to make your camping experience easy. To seasoned campers, we just bring everything we need and know there is an ice cream store if we feel like one. Oh, in case you wonder, there are comfort centres in each major campground, providing hot showers and flush toilets. The staff clean them 3 times a day. The level of cleanliness depends on the quantity of visitors, meaning it is marginally acceptable during summer long weekends, okay clean during regular summer weekends, really clean during summer weekdays, and squeaky clean in slower seasons that are May and September. The outhouses smell bad, so I avoid having a site near one. There are many electric sites that are great for RV and trailers. Your Bell and Rogers cellphones will work. I would, however, encourage you to leave civilization behind, put your feet up on a rock and take a nap. P.S. In case you are a camping rookie, Ontario Parks runs a "Learn to Camp" program that teaches you about car camping in a 2-day-1-night real life camping workshop. The cost is $74+HST (2013 prices) for a group upto 6 people. Extremely affordable. Just google it.

We have been to this park twice; once in spring and once in fall. Both the experiences were amazing. We thoroughly enjoy the nature and love every opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city life. Timing Spring is a nice time for moose spotting along the highway 60. We spotted at least 10 of them over 3 days we stayed there in the spring. But there were lots of mosquitos and black flies. Autumn was great as well to see the fall foliage. No mosquitos/black flies this time. No moose either. So decide how you would like it to be. I'll always visit here in the fall. Trails All the trails that we did were different. Spruce bog boardwalk - was fairly easy. 45 min-1 hour at max. Mostly it was on a paved path/boardwalk. You have to get down the boardwalk in the bog to experience the sinking feeling. It is fun. Big pines - was of medium difficulty. Probably nice 1.5 hour of walk. It had rocks, tree stumps, roots, unpaved path amongst the big pine trees. Hence, the name. Near the parking of this trail there is a way going up. That's not the right way. That's an uphill climb, path meant for the trucks; not the trail. The trail entrance would probably be obscured by the cars parked in front of it. Hardwood Lookout - It is a small trail but taxing. It has lots of ups and downs but in the end you're rewarded with a nice view. If you're tired and don't want to do the entire trail, go in the reverse direction. The viewpoint is only 200 m from the parking if you go in the reverse direction. Lookout trail - is one of the nicest and busiest trail on this side of the park. The view from the top is gorgeous. If you're going in the fall, you will not get a parking spot. Make sure to park in the parking of Big Pines trail and walk from there. It's hardly 200 m. Whiskey Rapids - the name is misleading as there are no rapids to see. Small river which seems stagnant for the most part, a little lively at others. The trail otherwise is nice and undisturbed. No paved pathways, so very natural. Not a lot of people go on this trail too. Hemlock bluff - this is a worthy competitor for the lookout trail. Offers an amazing view of jack lake. I'm definitely going to do this one next time. Peck lake trail - 2.3 km of moderately easy loop. No viewpoints to remember. I would probably skip. Beaver lake - You may actually spot some wildlife here. Beavers, snakes, bullfrogs. Nice views too. Other attractions Logging Museum - is an outdoor museum which depicts the history of logging in Algonquin provincial park. Nice outdoor museum. Lots of photo opportunities too. Art Centre - hosts lots of nice paintings, other artifacts by local artists. They are for sale too, if you have deep pockets and love art. The part about deep pockets is more important, because I love art too. :) Visitor centre - boasts of an indoor museum with taxidermied animals, exhibits and a cafe. The best part is the deck outside which offers amazing view of Algonquin park.

I regularly enjoy using the trails off HWY#60 and while they are all quite similar, they don't disappoint. They are well maintained and easy to navigate. The park is in its glory in fall. There are few places more beautiful that Algonquin Park when the leaves have turned. The lakes, rocks with the muted colours of fall all make for a spectacular setting. I haven't ventured deep into the interior but would like to. Ontario is lucky to have this vast area of protected, naturally brilliant space. I can't check-in here and I kind of like that.

Miles and miles - hours and hours outside Toronto, Algonquin is a huge nature reserve that genuinely has bears, wolves and other dangers (including trash left behind by inconsiderate people). A visit here ca be as civilised or as wild as you wish but be warned - wild means wild. Bears can smell food inside your coolbox.

Beautiful park with some of the nicest trails I've ever walked in my 50 years of exploring nature. Being from amreica I was very pleasantly amazed by the lack of litter and road kill in the park and it's surrounding area. It's obvious Canadians take great pride in their country and parks unlike americans. One of the top 3 parks I've ever attended and a must if you are in the area. Great Pines, Beaver Pond and Hemlock Bluff are nice shorter trails while Mizzy Lake is a longer trek. Pec Lake was our favorite trail. Saw several Beaver, a couple Deer, several Red Foxes as dozens of Frogs while enjoying some much needed fresh, clean air!

for anyone who loves the outdoors this is MECCA. in ontario it doesnt get better than this. this is a national park that is enormous and home to summer camps, cottages and to the delight of millions of folks from ontario and probably canada wide, filled with incredible places to camp. if you dont camp very often, dont have much gear and prefer more amenities you can do car camping where you park your car on your campsite, which is usually enough for said car, a tent or two, a picnic bench and an already dug hearth with grill in place. the comfort involved such as proper showers and toilets and fresh drinkable water is juxtaposed with the lack of privacy. if you have a substantial amount of gear, such that you can go out and camp away from all amenities then your possibilities open up tremendously. on all sides of the park (its almost absurd to call this a park since this spans across several towns and is vast) are access points where you can cast off from many little rivers. most of these rivers are connected by way of portage routes that are maintained (some more than others im sure) year round. if you are kayaking or canoeing and dont want to portage, you are limited to the spots that are accessible everywhere up to any portage and those amount to somewhere in the thousands im sure. it would follow then that the more you are interested in having privacy where you can get to little lakes that cant have motor boats lets say, you will need to plan longer trips, be quite fit and be willing to portage a lot. during the summer months especially, algonquin, despite its enormity, fills up quickly in terms of camping. canadians love to camp to be sure. the drive from toronto is somewhere around 3 hours i believe so not too far but far enough away that you wont be seeing anything industrial, urban or even rural. its all wilderness. ive camped a bunch of times starting off at canoe lake and made my way to smaller lakes called little doe lake and even though we didnt portage anywhere (die hard kayakers) the camp sites were very far away from each other so you get quite enough privacy that way. also, though they can be a little tough to find as you are paddling and because the lakes can be quite vast, the prepared campsites are marked with red triangles. by prepared i mean there is space to put a tent, sometimes depending on the spot many tents (lots of camps use the park for mini trips). other than that you should know what your doing to make things livable. this is a heavenly place. you simply are privy to sounds that dont exist in the city, to animals youve probably only read about or seen on tv, and to hosts of plant life the reminds you to stop being so trepidatious about everything and just let it be as the trees do.

From east to west gate, this is a great place for a family trip. I just wish that I would have more time to explore!

...and check out www.campsitepictures.com! If your going car camping this site will help you out for sure.. peace