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Ontario Road Trip: Places Worth the Drive
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items Ontario is a lot more than Toronto. Lake Superior cliffs and ancient rock paintings, a giant goose in Wawa, Mennonite markets, pioneer villages, island lighthouses and the falls everyone should see once. These are the stops worth the drive, from Lake...
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Sections
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Northwestern Ontario & Lake Superior
Near North & Georgian Bay
Eastern Ontario & the St. Lawrence
Southern Ontario & Niagara
Northwestern Ontario & Lake Superior
Big lakes, waterfalls, canyons and the long, beautiful drive around the top of Lake Superior.
A 40-foot muskie leaping out of the water at the harbourfront in Kenora, gateway to Lake of the Woods and its 14,000 islands. The first stop for anyone coming in from Manitoba.
Husky the Muskie
The “Niagara of the North.” The Kaministiquia River drops 40 metres into a gorge just west of Thunder Bay, with boardwalks and lookouts right beside the falls.
Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park
A deep, sheer-walled canyon just off the highway near Dorion. A short walk leads to lookouts over the drop, and arctic plants grow on the cold canyon floor far below.
Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park
The peninsula that looks like a giant lying on his back across the bay from Thunder Bay. The Top of the Giant trail is long, but the views over Lake Superior are some of the best anywhere.
Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
The giant Canada goose has greeted Trans-Canada travellers here for decades. A good place to stretch your legs and fill up before the wild drive along the east shore of Lake Superior.
Wawa Goose
Wild Lake Superior shoreline, with the Agawa Rock pictographs: ochre paintings by Ojibwe people on a cliff at the water's edge. The short trail to the rock is rugged, so go on a calm day and watch your step on the ledge.
Lake Superior Provincial Park
A full-day train ride from Sault Ste. Marie north into the Agawa Canyon, best in the fall colours. The train stops at the bottom so you can walk to the waterfalls. Seasonal, so book ahead.
Agawa Canyon Tour Train
Near North & Georgian Bay
Sudbury, Manitoulin Island, the Bruce Peninsula and Algonquin: rock, pine and clear water a few hours north of the cities.
A nine-metre replica of a 1951 Canadian nickel at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury. Corny and fun, and a nod to the mining that built the city.
Big Nickel
White quartzite hills, pink granite and clear blue lakes on the edge of Georgian Bay. This is the country that drew the Group of Seven painters, and it still looks like their canvases.
Killarney Provincial Park
On Manitoulin, the largest freshwater island in the world. You can walk right behind the falling water here, then follow the river trail down to the harbour in little Kagawong.
Bridal Veil Falls
Take the tour boat out of Tobermory to see the tall rock ‘flowerpots’ on Flowerpot Island, and look down at old shipwrecks through the clear water on the way. The tip of the Bruce Peninsula is worth the drive on its own.
Fathom Five National Marine Park
Highway 60 runs right through the park, with lookout trails and lakes all along the way. Watch for moose by the road in spring, and come in late September when the maples turn.
Algonquin Provincial Park
Eastern Ontario & the St. Lawrence
Old forts, pioneer villages, island cruises and big sand dunes along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
Mazinaw Rock rises about 100 metres straight out of the lake, with hundreds of Indigenous pictographs near the waterline. A short ferry crosses to the cliff-top trail, or rent a canoe and paddle along the rock.
Bon Echo Provincial Park
Big freshwater sand dunes and long, shallow beaches on Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County. Pair it with the county's farm stands and small-town main streets.
Sandbanks Provincial Park
A restored 1830s stone fort on the hill above Kingston harbour. In summer, go for the evening Sunset Ceremony with drills, music and the cannon.
Fort Henry National Historic Site
Take a boat cruise from Gananoque out among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, past cottages and summer homes built on islands barely bigger than the house.
Gananoque Boat Tours
An 1860s village rebuilt from buildings saved when the St. Lawrence Seaway flooded the old river towns. Working mills, a blacksmith and costumed staff going about their day. Open in the warmer months.
Upper Canada Village
Southern Ontario & Niagara
The falls, wine country, Mennonite markets and the southern tip of Canada on Lake Erie.
The one everyone should see once. Walk the railing at Table Rock right at the brink, and take the boat up into the mist below the falls.
Horseshoe Falls
A quiet 1800s town with tree-lined streets, the clock tower on Queen Street, Fort George and the Shaw Festival, all surrounded by orchards and vineyards. A short drive from the falls, and a world away.
Cenotaph of Niagara-on-the-Lake
One of Canada's biggest farmers' markets, in Mennonite country just north of Waterloo. Go early on a Saturday, and watch for horse-and-buggies on the back roads around St. Jacobs.
St. Jacobs Farmers' Market
A limestone gorge on the Grand River with easy walking trails and tubing in the summer. The old mill town of Elora sits right on the edge, with good shops and a walk across the river.
Elora Gorge Conservation Area
The southern tip of mainland Canada, a narrow sand spit reaching into Lake Erie. Famous for the spring bird migration in May and for monarch butterflies gathering in the fall.
Point Pelee National Park