Planning the perfect Ontario road trip
Explore the backroads, wild places and unusual sights
If you’re planning a road trip this spring or summer, you don’t have to go far. In fact, you don’t have to leave the province. From wild places to quirky sights and historic, scenic backroad drives, there’s plenty to see right in your own backyard.
While people often think of escaping to far-off lands to stand atop grand canyons and island-hop in turquoise waters, those adventures can be found here in Ontario — in many cases, on an easy day trip or weekend getaway, according to authors Chris Earley and Tracy Read in 100 Nature Hot Spots in Ontario: The Best Parks, Conservation Areas and Wild Places.
Canada has its own Grand Canyon, and it’s in Ontario. If you’re roadtripping along the northern shoreline of Lake Superior, the authors recommend a short detour to Ouimet Canyon, often referred to as Canada’s Grand Canyon. This two-kilometre-long wall of rock has a sheer drop of 100 metres and can be viewed on two platforms linked by a trail and boardwalk. On the canyon floor, a virtually sunless, windfree zone means ice and snow persist year-round, with vegetation typically only found in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.
There’s also no need to leave the province for island-hopping. Fathom Five National Marine Park is the first of its kind in Canada, encompassing 20 islands and the sites of 22 shipwrecks. On Flowerpot Island, you’ll find sea stacks — which look like flowerpots up to 12 metres tall — as well as caves, escarpment cliffs and marl beds; it’s possible to hike to the Flowerpot Lightstation or search for unusual orchids on a loop-walking trail.
On the southernmost tip of mainland Canada, you’ll find Point Pelee National Park, a marshland that’s considered North America’s best in-land bird migration site (and the Warbler Capital). But it’s not just for avid birders; visitors can stroll the picturesque marsh boardwalk and look for turtles, paddle a canoe through wetlands or picnic on a sandy beach.
Some of Ontario’s most interesting and unusual sights can be found along an extensive system of scenic backroads, ideal for those looking to escape urban freeways and suburban sprawl. Ron Brown, in his book Backroads of Ontario, offers 24 routes that take in everything from ghost towns to century-old farmhouses and architectural curiosities.
The Nipissing Ghost Town Trail, for example, follows the “road of broken dreams,” once home to a settlement of hopeful pioneers. The peaceful, picturesque backroad winds 120 km from Rosseau to Nipissing, past empty cabins and weathered barns — perfect for photographers. Along the way, road-trippers will come across the historic Lake Rosseau Lighthouse, resting on a shoal in the water.
Ontario is also home to countless rural churches with a variety of architectural styles, many of which can be viewed on the Lake Simcoe Steeple Chase. This route tracks the prettiest and most historic churches, following the shoreline of scenic Lake Simcoe. One highlight is St. George’s Anglican Church, a “stone stunner” that sits between the lake and Sibbald Point Provincial Park. The doors often remain open to visitors; look for the east window, which was hand-painted in 1845 by the daughters of Upper Canada’s first governor, John Simcoe.
But there’s much more to Ontario than scenic landscapes and historic landmarks. In Brown’s guide, Top 150 Unusual Things to See in Ontario (complete with detailed maps), he outlines the quirky and the odd, from covered bridges and floating mansions to a steeple without a church and a lake with no waves (this is, in fact, accurate: Crawford Lake is one of only two deep oxygen-deprived meromictic lakes in the province).
One of the most arresting sights in Niagara, writes Brown, isn’t the wineries or the falls; it’s a bizarre shipwreck that rests on the rocks at Jordan Harbour, with three tall masts straight out of a pirate movie. There weren’t any pirates on La Grande Hermine; instead, its owners allegedly abandoned ship to avoid unpaid mooring fees.
Another unexpected sight is Peterborough’s petroglyphs — more than 900 etchings on rock in the forest north of Stoney Lake. Called the Teaching Rocks, they tell an Aboriginal story of life and comprise North America’s largest and most mysterious Aboriginal petroglyphs.
Those willing to go the distance by boat, float plane or four-wheeldrive vehicle, will be rewarded with the strange log castle on White Otter Lake. This three-storey mansion was constructed of red pine logs by one man — James McQuat, who arrived from Scotland in 1887 — with no help and no machinery. Supposedly, it was built to impress a woman.
Ontario is full of such hidden treasures. “Down village streets, in city lanes, and along quiet country roads lie its most unusual sights — houses that seem to float, a river that disappears, log cabins in the centre of a major city,” writes Brown. “All await the curious explorer.”