HollyDays in Northern ON: Part 6
/August 10 - 12, 2020
Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park
We said goodbye to Quetico PP and the Central Time Zone as we headed towards our first stop of the day at Kakabeka Falls, where we picked up ice coffee and tasty scones (blueberry, orange/choc chip and cinnamon twist) at the Metropolitan Moose. Chris had an iced chai and I had an iced cappuccino - so delicious! Then we headed down the street to The Eddy where we ordered take-out portabello mushroom burgers for lunch. They came with a salad and fries (sooo yummy!) and we ended up stopping at the Terry Fox monument to eat there. It was a gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky! Early on in our drive we saw another Airstream, this time a Bambi.
After lunch, we continued east towards Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park. The sign said that Ouimet Canyon was 11 km from the highway, but when we arrived at the first parking lot after about 8 km, a sign told us to unhitch the trailers and leave it in the parking lot below. We didn’t realize we needed to do this so we called the number on the website and they suggested that the road was too steep for cars pulling trailers and that the parking lot at the top was pretty tight for turning around. We weren’t keen to unhitch and have to hitch up again, so we considered just walking up the last 3 km! We saw.another family returning from the lower view point and they suggested that we were pretty fit and could likely just walk up, so that’s what we did! It was super sunny, but there was a breeze and we walked on the shady side of the road. We arrived up to the top of the canyon road and it was another short hike to two lookout points.
The view from both of the lookouts was spectacular! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the day was perfect. On the way to and from the lookouts, there’s a really interesting bridge that you need to cross to get to the trail that takes you to the lookout points. We met another couple with an adorable cocker spaniel named Sammy and a family of five travelling in a bus that they had driven up to the top of the canyon road. As we were walking up, we realized we probably could have gone up with the trailer. But it was great to get some exercise in! In total, it was 7.5 km round trip from the car to the canyon and back. I’d been collecting stickers at all of the Provincial Parks we visited but not all of the provincial parks have stickers, and Ouimet Canyon is one that didn’t have one. Too bad!
About an hour before we arrived at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, we crossed the Nipigon River Bridge. It’s a very unique looking, cable-stayed bridge and it’s the only link between Eastern Canada and Western Canada, without going through the US. In early 2016, the new bridge failed and left the longest crossing on the TransCanada Highway closed for 17 hours. Everything seemed fine when we crossed and we admired the beauty of the bridge.
Stunning views from the drive along lake superior
Rainbow Falls Provincial Park (Rossport)
We left Ouimet Canyon at about 5 pm and it took another 90 minutes to get to Rainbow Falls Provincial Park - Rossport Campground. Only after we arrived and checked in did we realize that we needed to go to the Rainbow Falls Provincial Park - Whitesand Lake campground (which was about 5 km further along the TransCanada Highway), to dump, so we checked out our site, decided where to place Holly and then went to dump. As we left the the park to dump, we saw another Bambi camping! Also being towed with a BMW! A small little coup. Of course, as soon as we saw it, we knew it was more than likely set up by CanAm RV in London. We didn’t get to connect with the owner until just before we left. The other Bambi was owned by a woman who was travelling with a friend and while she’d owned it for a little more than 2 months, it was one of her first long trips with her Bambi. They had kayaks with them and were having a great time exploring on the water. We had a great chat! Funny, they were having trouble with the shower and when they told us what was going on, we were able to tell them how to fix their problem. They were very thankful!
Back to our arrival… We dumped, filled up with water and headed back to our site. By the time we were properly situated and unhitched, it was past 7 pm. Our site was AMAZING. It had the BEST view. We did have to share our waterfront with everyone else, but it was fine - it’s a very small campground and even full, it wasn’t crowded. We warmed up leftovers for supper (sausages, mashed potatoes and salad). The rest of the set up was done quickly.
Once the sun went down, we watched a bit more of the Jeffry Epstein documentary. It was still getting dark quite late, so we didn’t head into the trailer until the bugs started to get bad. I normally stay outside longer to see the sunsets and Chris goes in earlier. There were some spectacular sunsets!
The next morning, we had our coffee with the scones we bought from the Metropolitan Moose for breakfast. We didn’t really do much but admire the view for most of the morning.
Around 1 pm, we drove back a short way to Rossport. It’s a cute little, little town, but nothing was really open, which was not unexpected. We ended up hiking along the Rossport Coastal Trail instead. It was one of our favourite hikes and it was so fun! It was only about 1.7 km each way, but it was along the shoreline and we had to scramble over rocks a few times. We ended up at the picnic rest area, just off the highway. One of my favourite things about this hike was that there were two spots on the trail that had a plexiglass container with guest book for visitors to sign, so we signed it. It was a gorgeous day and Daisy loved playing in the water every chance she got. Some of the trail was though the trees (very neat for a trail that’s so close to the highway), but we could see the water peeking through most of the time. At one of the clearings, we came across the Red Chairs that are part of the Parks Canada Red Chair Experience that originated in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. We took a small break and got a few photos with the chairs. So fun to find a set of them!
“The red chair experience is all about connecting Canadians with nature in our country’s most unique and treasured places. Whether it’s a quiet place to enjoy an awe-inspiring view or an “I made it!” marker at the end of a rugged hike, a red chair offers you a place to relax and truly discover the best that Parks Canada has to offer.”
After the hike we headed back to our campsite for a bathroom break and then continued on to the Whitesand Lake Campground to actually see Rainbow Falls. They were very pretty and much larger than I expected. A great deal has been invested in beautiful boardwalks and stairs to keep people safe and from straying off the path. There were a few places where we could go out on the rocks and get closer to the falls and felt quite safe doing so.
We needed a few groceries, so we continued to drive another 10 minutes east to Schreiber to pick up some groceries and then returned to our campsite..
Chris headed off for a 12 km run while I started a fire and tackled the dishes (finally - there were a lot!). When he arrived back from his run, we went for a little dip in one of the small pools of water (not the freezing cold waters of the big Lake Superior!). Although it was a little “pool” in the rocks, the water was still really cold! We had delicious homemade burgers on the fire for supper. They were our last two burgers, so we won’t have any more until we get home.
It was another perfect evening with another gorgeous sunset. I spent time with my camera out on the rocks in front of our site, taking photos and chatting with a nice couple from near Toronto (about photos and sunsets!).
The night sky was perfectly clear, so I also tried my hand at nighttime photography using my tripod and long exposure. I wasn’t very good and didn’t really know what I was doing. And then my battery died so I took that as a sign to go to bed. The sky was so full of stars and I could see the Milky Way!
My try at nighttime stars…
I was up the next morning with Daisy to take her for a walk so that Chris could sleep a little longer. Breakfast was cereal, but we took a little bit of time drinking our coffee out on the rocks and soaking up the last few minutes of the view. We packed up, hitched up and took Daisy on one last loop before leaving around noon.
The Rainbow Falls Rossport Campground was a really wonderful experience for us. We had one of the very best sites (in our opinion!) with a view that couldn’t be beat. There was some construction right at the entrance to the park, so if we had stayed closer to the entrance, that might have changed our experience a little. It’s a really small park and many of the sites are quite open. There are a handful of sites with water views that are stunning. There is a water filling station, but no dumping station, so we needed to go to the Whitesand Lake Campground, 5 minutes east, to dump our tank. There’s a nice, small beach at the Rossport Campground, but we didn’t need to go to it, as we had quite a water view from our own site. This campground was the most strict about dogs - Daisy was off leash for a little bit, chasing sticks near the water at one point and the campground person came and very nicely reminded us to put her on her leash, which we did. We loved this little park and would return again, if the chance arose, especially if we could arrange for the same site!
Next stop: Lake Superior Provincial Park
Quetico Provincial Park - Kakabeka Falls - Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park - Rainbow Falls Provincial Park (Rossport)
Towing: 376 km
Driving: 45 km
Batteries: 12.2
Fresh Water Tank: 40% full
Combined Grey/Black Water Tank: 56% full
We didn’t have any issues or concerns with our batteries, fresh water tank or black/grey tank. We both had a quick shower at some point during our stay, but we weren’t overly careful with any of our utilities this stay.
