Adventures in Bon Echo Provincial Park

This past weekend I hopped in a car with some friends and headed up to Bon Echo Provincial Park for a little camping. Depsite having worked at a provincial park for four summers, I’d never been to this particular one before, so I didn’t know what to expect when we arrived.

This is what greeted us. I couldn’t believe how gorgeous it was. We got there just in time to see the sunset reflect off the giant cliffs and onto the black water. Its about 400 ft deep in the lake, which creates a beautiful black water.

The cliffs are about 300 feet high and changed colour depending on the time of the day. So beautiful.

This is what the view looked like from our sites. It turned out that we got premium sites, which you have to trek about 10 minutes into the woods to get to, but it is so worth it to see this view all day.

Here is my little home away from home. I slept in the red tent on the left, with a perfect view of the cliff from the tent window every morning.

Most of the days were spent here, jumping off a rock at the bottom of our campsites, and relaxing in the surprisingly warm water.

We all bought pool noodles from a local hardware store, which were perfect for lounging around in the water with a cold beer in hand.

We even rigged up a primitive pulley system with this bucket to make it easier to get beer up and down the steep hill.

My friends were set up on another site and when I went to go take a picture of their dog, Maya, I realized it looked just like an advertisement for Coleman tents.

Maya is quite the photogenic dog and was quite the good sport of my lens constantly being in her face.

Aside from the pooch, there was plenty of other animal life around, like these little baby ducks who were going out for a swim with their mother one morning, right by our campsite.

I also had a very brave chipmunk come investigate what I was cooking up at the picnic table.

In the morning, I went for a hike around our bay of Mazinaw Lake with some friends to go rent canoes. You can see here how far across the lake is from where we are camping (on the left) and where the cliff face of the Mazinaw rock is (on the right).

After we picked up some canoes, it was time from some adventuring around along the water.

We were able to go right up to the Mazinaw rock face and try to look all the way up. There is a hiking trial along the top where you can get an amazing view of the area. Next time I come here, I plan to head up there.

Down on the water there is this carving in the rock of a Walt Whitman poem. The previous owners of the land (before it was a provincial park) were big Whitman fans, so when he passed away they carved this into the stone in honour of him.

Source

Here is an old picture from the dedication in August 1919. It must have been quite the endeavour to have that carved into the rock face, but it was well worth it to have so many people enjoy it every summer.

Farther along on the Mazinaw rock there are native pictographs drawn hundreds of years ago. At first I couldn’t see them from all the various moulds and rust on the rock face, but then suddenly the red lines started to appear. Its was amazing to think that they’ve been there for so long.

 

On our final day at the park, I went to return the canoe and do a little exploring around the rest of the park. This Greystone Gift and Book Store is part of the original Bon Echo Inn grounds before it became a provincial park.

Inside the store they have a wonderful gallery full of art inspired by the majestic views on the lake, as well as the native drawings. The park has been a popular location for artists to come for over a hundred years!

Another salvaged original resort building has been turned into the Visitor’s Centre, which houses great displays on the wildlife, native history, mining and forestry past, as well as the artists’ inn from which this building came from.

They still had some of the original china and linens on display from the inn. I love the beautiful blue patterns that they chose.

The final piece in the display was this detailed model of what the original main building of the inn looked like before it burned down in 1936.

It was a fantastic provincial park to visit and I had a great time enjoying all the swimming, canoeing, campfires and exploring around the lake. Its given me the itch to get back out there and do more camping this year!