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Home › Articles › Family-Friendly Destinations › Algonquin Provincial Park

Algonquin Provincial Park

What Canada Looked Like Before Man Arrived

By Julia Rosien

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Don't forget to confirm your campsite reservations and register your route and schedule. Although it's unlikely that anyone will steal your campsite, it's imperative, for the sake of safety, that officials know your exact plans.

What Else Can You Do?

Take a walk during the summer season with a park naturalist and explore different aspects of Algonquin's flora and fauna. Evening programs include videos and slide shows (bring a flashlight, and mosquito repellant). Go on a Wolf Howl afterwards and listen as a pack of wolves answers your call.

Visit the Logging Museum and Bookstore, located just inside the East gate. The exhibit trail (open all year), centers around a full-size reconstructed "camboose camp" where loggers lived and worked in the Park. See a working dam, log chute and one of the last of the steam-powered tug boats (called an "alligator"), which could winch itself from one lake to another.

The Visitor Centre, at kilometer 43, offers photographs and audiotapes that relate how the park's history had been influenced by logging, tourism and the railway. Watch a "diorama" (a presentation of the Park's wildlife) and feel as if you are viewing live creatures through a window. An observation deck gives you a bird's-eye view of many acres of Algonquin landscape, where birdwatching and wildlife sighting are popular activities.

However you spend your time at Algonquin, you'll be glad you came, and the memories you make will last a lifetime. Whether you opt for seclusion in the interior of the park or the more populated campgrounds, you'll experience something not available in stores. Find your own mystery, and discover the joy of being the first to see the sun rise and set over an ancient forest.

Wildlife Viewing
  • The best time to see wildlife is during the early hours of the morning or late evening. The coolest, quietest times of day bring animals out to forage for food.
  • Take your binoculars. They'll help you see many different animals close up without disturbing them.
  • Far more wildlife is seen along the Highway 60 Corridor than in the Interior. Some animals (particularly moose) are attracted to the highway at certain times of the year. Cruising along the highway at dawn or dusk can be an excellent way of seeing wildlife. Please remember to pull to the shoulder, safely off the pavement.
  • Concentrate your searches for wildlife on low-lying areas such as bogs, beaver ponds and meadows. These areas provide open vistas or breaks in the otherwise dense forest. Use trails like the Beaver Pond Trail, Spruce Bog Boardwalk and Mizzy Lake Trail, which were specifically designed for wildlife viewing.
  • Use common sense when watching wildlife. They are wild animals and should never be approached.

Battling the Bugs
  • If you plan to camp in early spring be prepared to battle black flies the last few hours of daylight each day.
  • From May until August, mosquitoes plague campers in the first few hours of darkness and all day in shady parts of the forest. Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants tucked into socks. Wear light-colored clothing and plenty of insect repellent.


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