Ottawa to Algonquin Provincial Park

July 8 – Hot and sunny, with 10 minutes of showers, ~2100km from home

In the morning we got our trip log up to date, did some internet things (the campground had full strength wireless for all the sites!) and drove closer to the city to catch a bus to downtown Ottawa. The Ottawa bus system is awesome; they have entire highways dedicated to buses and direct routes to exactly where we wanted to go!

We stopped at a patisserie in the Byward Market for a pastry snack and walked to the National Art Gallery. Out front was a massive metal sculpture of a protective mother spider, inspired by the artist’s mother, Josephine (Josie decided to feel proud). Inside we caught the exhibit “Making of the New Man” about art in the 1930s and how it was influenced by politics. Also saw an exhibit of photography called “Imagining a Shattering Earth” and tracked down the Tom Thompson and Group of Seven paintings, the Inuit art exhibit and the Impressionists section. We liked the A.Y. Jackson paintings and Van Gogh’s “Iris”. We spent 3 hours at the art gallery and didn’t have the time or energy for any more.

By the time we were done at the gallery it was well past lunch so we went to lunch at Zak’s and shared a 4-cheese poutine (Josie was feeling cheated that we didn`t have poutine in Quebec). We bought produce and Quebec cheese at the market and then caught the bus back to the car.

We left Ottawa for Algonquin Provincial Park during rush hour and arrived at our campsite just as it was getting dark. We camped in the Lake of Two Rivers Campground in Algonquin Provincial Park, which is huge and well used, and we stayed for two nights so we could do some hiking.



July 9 – rain showers in the am, then got sunny and windy, ~2100km from home

It was showering in the morning so we went to the Visitor’s Center. Very impressive displays on the flora and fauna of the park, as well as the history of human use in the park. Informative displays, dioramas and interactive exhibits – like a museum. And we got to see a live Grey Tree frog!

By the time we finished at the Visitor’s Center, the weather had cleared up and became sunny and warm so we went for a hike. We hiked the 10km Centennial Ridges loop, which we heard has the best panoramic views in the park – they were quite spectacular. The wind on the ridges was gusty but refreshing. The forests in the area are part of the Northern Hardwoods transitioning to Boreal, similar to home but with a bit more species diversity – we especially noticed that there were new wildflowers that we don’t have in Nova Scotia. Scott was most impressed by the outcrops of very old metamorphic rock.

We stayed in the same campsite again the second night, had a campfire and drank up the birch sap wine Josie brought from Newfoundland.