Algonquin Park

Algonquin Provincial Park is a Provincial Park in central Ontario, Canada. It is the fourth largest park in Ontario, covering about 7,653 square kilometres. Its size, combined with its relative proximity to the major urban centres of Toronto and Ottawa make it one of the most popular parks in the province. Highway 60 runs through the south of the park, while the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north. Over 1500 lakes and 1200 kilometres of streams and rivers are located within the park, including Canoe Lake and the Petawawa and Nipissing Rivers. These were formed by the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age. The park covers both the deciduous forests of southern Ontario and the coniferous forests of the Canadian Shield in northern Ontario. It contains thousands of species of plants and animals, including moose, beaver, black bear, lake trout, maple, and spruce, and is an important site for wildlife research. The park also provides protected habitat for the Eastern Wolf.

In the 19th century, the logging industry began harvesting the large white pine trees in the area for shipbuilding. To preserve the land as a wildlife sanctuary, the province of Ontario designated it a Provincial Park in 1893. It quickly became popular with fishermen and hunters, as well as artists such as Tom Thomson and the members of the Group of Seven, who found the landscape inspiring. Thomson served as a guide in the park and died there in 1917. Up until 1994, the main line of the Canadian National Railway passed through the northern part of the park.

Today Algonquin Park is a popular year-round outdoor activity area. There are designated campgrounds along the edges of the park, especially on Highway 60, but it is possible to camp further inside the park as well, in sites accessible only by canoe or on foot. Other activities include fishing, hang-gliding, snowmobiling and cross country skiing. Yurt camping is available in the park. Algonquin is also home to a very popular Natural Heritage Education program, the most popular program being the weekly wolf howls in the summer months.

Although there are numerous drive-in campgrounds in Algonquin, the park is better known for its interior camping, that is, campsites which are only accessible by canoe or hiking in the summer, or ski or snowshoe in the winter. Algonquin Park provides some of Canada's best canoeing, with dozens of navigable lakes and rivers forming a vast interconnected system. The further a camper progresses from access points, the more wild the park will become, and it is possible to spend several days in the interior with little or no sight of other campers. Park staff maintain portages between all major and even smaller lakes, and interior campsite reservations must be made through the main Ontario Parks reservation system. Potential interior campers should note that there are two types of portages in the park; those marked as red lines on the map are well-maintained and usually well-traveled, while those marked in black receive much less maintenance and can be considerably more difficult to follow.

Fishing is allowed in the Park for holders of valid Ontario fishing licenses, available through the Ministry of Natural Resources. Fish such as bass, perch, trout and pike can be found in the waterways of the park. The further an angler is willing to travel from an access point, the more likely that the fishing will be outstanding - those willing to make the effort to portage their gear to a more secluded interior lake will often be rewarded.