Toronto to Algonquin Park, in one paragraph
Toronto to Algonquin Park by black car is 280 kilometres and three hours to the West Gate — the 400 and Highway 11 to Huntsville (the Muskoka article's road), then Highway 60 east for forty-five minutes — and the Highway 60 corridor inside the park (the 56 kilometres from the West Gate to the East Gate: Oxtongue and Canoe Lakes, the Portage Store, the Visitor Centre at kilometre 43, the Logging Museum, the Lake of Two Rivers, the Opeongo Road, the lookouts and the trailheads) leads to the three lodges inside the park — Arowhon Pines on Little Joe Lake down its own eight-kilometre road, Killarney Lodge on the Lake of Two Rivers, Bartlett Lodge across Cache Lake by the lodge's boat — open May to October with their meals, their canoes and their cabins; the day trip (the Visitor Centre, a trail, the Portage Store lunch, a Canoe Lake paddle, home by 9), the fall colours' late-September peak (and the 60's colour-weekend gridlock — the fall colours article), the moose at dawn and dusk, the canoe trip drop at the outfitter's put-in with the pickup a week later, the winter's skiing and dog-sledding with the lodges closed; the vehicle is the SUV for the Arowhon road, the multi-day hire keeps the chauffeur at Huntsville, and the Muskoka article is the run's first two hours.
Algonquin is the trade's longest ordinary day trip and its most particular lodge run: a park the size of Prince Edward Island with one road through its southern edge, three lodges inside that road's reach whose guests arrive by car and leave the car for a week, a Visitor Centre whose deck is the colour photograph every Toronto family has, and a September fortnight when the highway through the park stops dead with the cars that came for the maples. The black car's case is the lodge weekend (the three hours in the back, the lodge's own road, the return a week later), the canoe trip's drop and pickup, and the colour day done at 6 a.m. before the gridlock. This guide covers the drive and the gate, the Highway 60 corridor, the three lodges and their roads, the accommodations outside the gates, the day trip, the colours and the gridlock, the moose, the canoe trip drop, the east exit, the winter, the vehicle, the multi-day hire, the rate, and a worked lodge weekend.
The drive and the gate
The Muskoka article's 400 north to Barrie, the 11 to Gravenhurst, Bracebridge and Huntsville (two hours and fifteen minutes; the Friday exodus's three), Huntsville's Highway 60 exit and the 60 east through Dwight (the Dwight Village Market's last supplies, the Oxtongue Craft Cabin) and Oxtongue Lake (the Algonquin Outfitters' base and the Oxtongue River's rapids) to the West Gate at kilometre 0 — the permit office (the daily vehicle permit or the lodge's guests' pass; the Ontario Parks reservation for the day-use on a colour weekend), the map, the ranger's "where are the moose today"; 280 kilometres, three hours on a clear day, three and a half on a summer Friday; the long weekends article's Thanksgiving is the park's busiest weekend and the 407 to the 400 saves the interchange.
The Highway 60 corridor
The park's one road — 56 kilometres from the West Gate (km 0) to the East Gate (km 56) at Whitney — and its stops by kilometre: Oxtongue Lake (outside the gate — the outfitters), Canoe Lake (km 14 — the Portage Store's canoe rentals, its restaurant with the deck over the lake, the Tom Thomson cairn across the water, the put-in for the park's most-paddled route), the Hardwood Lookout trail (km 14), Smoke Lake and the Smoke Lake landing (km 15 — the float planes), Tea Lake (km 17), the Arowhon Road (km 15 — the lodge's eight kilometres north), the Track and Tower trail (km 25), Cache Lake and the Bartlett Lodge landing (km 23 — the boat), the Lake of Two Rivers (km 31 — the campground, the beach, the store, Killarney Lodge's peninsula), the Two Rivers trail and the Mew Lake campground (km 30), the Algonquin Art Centre (km 20), the Logging Museum (km 55 — the 1.3-kilometre trail through the recreated camp and the alligator steamboat), the Visitor Centre (km 43 — the exhibits, the theatre, the bookstore, the restaurant, and the deck with the view over the Sunday Creek valley that is the park's photograph), the Opeongo Road (km 46 — the six kilometres north to Lake Opeongo, the park's largest, the Algonquin Outfitters' store and the water taxi), the Spruce Bog boardwalk (km 42), the Lookout trail (km 40 — the two-kilometre climb to the cliff and the panorama, the colour weekend's queue), the Beaver Pond trail (km 45), the Centennial Ridges (km 37 — the ten-kilometre loop for the fit), the Mizzy Lake trail (km 15 — the eleven kilometres and the wildlife), the Rock Lake road (km 40) and the East Gate; the speed limit is 80 and the chauffeur drives 70 for the moose.
The three lodges
Arowhon Pines (the 1930s lodge on Little Joe Lake at the end of its own eight-kilometre gravel road north from km 15 — the log dining room with the central fireplace, the cabins along the shore, the meals (the dining room is the reason people book), the canoes and the sailboats at the dock, no phones or television in the cabins, the family that has run it since the 1940s; open late May to mid-October; the black car's drop at the lodge's door after the eight kilometres of gravel and hills — the SUV's road, and the Muskoka article's cottage-road logic; the lodge's own shuttle from Huntsville is the alternative the black car replaces). Killarney Lodge (the 1935 lodge on a peninsula in the Lake of Two Rivers at km 31 — the cabins each with a canoe at the door, the dining room, the Highway 60 access without a gravel road; open May to mid-October; the drop at the lodge's lot). Bartlett Lodge (the 1917 lodge on Cache Lake's far shore at km 23 — reached only by the lodge's boat from the Cache Lake landing (the guests call from the landing's phone and the boat comes), the cabins and the platform tents, the dining room, the canoes; open May to mid-October; the black car's drop at the landing with the bags to the dock — the Muskoka article's marina logic). All three: the meals included (the lodges are the park's restaurants), the canoes, the swimming, the quiet, the privacy and discretion article's standard for the guests who come for it, and the booking a year ahead for a colour week.
The accommodations outside the gates
Huntsville (forty-five minutes west of the gate — the Muskoka article's Deerhurst and the town's hotels; the chauffeur's base on a multi-day hire), Dwight and Oxtongue Lake's motels and resorts, Whitney at the East Gate (the Couples Resort on Galeairy Lake), and the park's own campgrounds and yurts on the 60 (the Ontario Parks reservation — five months ahead for a summer weekend).
The day trip
The 6 a.m. departure (the red-eye article's hour — the 400 empty, the moose still at the roadside at 9), the West Gate at 9, the Visitor Centre's deck and exhibits (an hour), a trail (the Lookout's two kilometres for the view, the Spruce Bog's boardwalk for the family, the Beaver Pond's two kilometres for the wildlife, the Hardwood Lookout for the colours), the Portage Store's deck lunch on Canoe Lake at 12:30, a canoe for two hours on Canoe Lake (the rental at the store; the Tom Thomson cairn's paddle), the Logging Museum or the Art Centre at 3:30, the East or the West Gate at 5, the 60 west (the moose at dusk — the chauffeur slows), Huntsville at 6, the 11 and the 400, the 9 p.m. Toronto door — thirteen to fourteen hours on the hourly or the flat Algonquin day rate; the Ontario Parks daily vehicle permit bought at the gate or reserved online (the colour weekends).
The colours and the gridlock
The park's maples peak in the last week of September and the first of October (the fall colours article's northern date — a week before Muskoka's, two before Toronto's; Ontario Parks' fall colour report tracks it), and the two weekends of the peak bring the 60 to a standstill — the Lookout trail's lot full by 9 with a line on the highway's shoulder, the Visitor Centre's lot the same, the West Gate's permit line an hour, the Thanksgiving weekend the worst; the black car's colour day is the weekday (a Tuesday in the peak week — the 6 a.m. departure, the park to yourselves), or the weekend with the 5 a.m. departure and the Lookout at 8, the Visitor Centre at 9:30, the Portage Store before the noon crowd and the departure by 2 before the return crawl; the Muskoka article's colours a week later and the Blue Mountain article's escarpment a fortnight later are the alternatives for a weekend that cannot move.
The moose
Algonquin's moose are the 60's other attraction — the roadside wetlands at dawn and dusk in May and June (the salt from the winter's road in the ditches draws them), the Mizzy Lake trail's ponds, the Opeongo Road's marshes, and the cars stopped on the shoulder with the cameras; the chauffeur drives the 60 at 70, watches the ditches at the hours, pulls fully off at a sighting (the defensive driving article's shoulder rule — a moose on the road at dusk is the north's most dangerous collision), and knows that the Ontario Parks rangers' daily sightings board at the gate is the morning's tip.
The canoe trip drop
The park's interior — 2,000 kilometres of canoe routes and 1,500 lakes — is reached from the 60's access points (Canoe Lake, Smoke Lake, Rock Lake, Opeongo via the water taxi, Cache Lake) and the outfitters (Algonquin Outfitters at Oxtongue Lake and Opeongo, the Portage Store at Canoe Lake) who rent the canoes, the barrels and the gear and sell the interior permits; the black car's run is the drop on the Saturday morning — the party of four with the packs in the Escalade's cargo (or the Sprinter for eight with the outfitter's canoes on the outfitter's trailer) to the outfitter's base, the permit and the canoes, the put-in — and the pickup a week later at the same landing on the agreed day and hour (the party's satellite messenger or the outfitter's phone confirms; the chauffeur waits — the flight delays article's policy is the paddlers' too), the luggage capacity article's wet packs on the mats and the vehicle cleaning article's detail after; the Muskoka article's summer camp run is the children's version (the camps on Canoe and Smoke Lakes — Ahmek, Wapomeo, Arowhon's camp, Tamakwa, Northway — and the unaccompanied minors article's handover to the counsellor at the landing).
The east exit and the winter
The East Gate at Whitney leads to Highway 60 east through Barry's Bay to Renfrew and the Ottawa article's 417 (three hours — the Toronto–Algonquin–Ottawa route), or Highway 62 south through Bancroft to Belleville and the 401 (the loop home through the Hastings Highlands' colours). The winter: the 60 is plowed and open (the park's only winter road), the lodges are closed (mid-October to May), the cross-country skiing on the Fen Lake, the Minnesing and the Leaf Lake trails (the groomed kilometres from the 60's lots), the dog-sledding with the outfitters near Oxtongue Lake and Huntsville, the snowshoeing on the summer trails, the Mew Lake campground's winter yurts, the Visitor Centre's winter hours, the winter driving article's 11 and 60 (the lake-effect from Georgian Bay reaches Huntsville; the 60 through the park is the north's cold and its drifts), and the Muskoka article's snowmobile country as the alternative.
The vehicle, the multi-day hire and the rate
The Escalade or the Navigator for the Arowhon road's eight kilometres of gravel and the canoe party's packs (the sedan vs SUV article — a sedan reaches Killarney's lot and the Cache Lake landing and not Arowhon in comfort), the S-Class for the couple to Killarney or Bartlett, the Sprinter for the lodge party of eight or the canoe trip of eight with the packs, the roof rack for a party's own canoe on request; the multi-day hire article's weekend with the chauffeur at a Huntsville motel and the vehicle for the lodge guests' Visitor Centre run or the Huntsville dinner (the lodges' guests mostly leave the car for the week and the two-transfer version — the Friday drop and the Sunday or the following Friday's pickup with the return leg built in — is the norm); the fleet's flat Algonquin rate (the engine shows it — the one-way to the West Gate, Killarney, the Cache Lake landing or Arowhon; the Whitney and East Gate rate), the flat Algonquin day rate or the hourly for the colour day, the canoe trip's drop and pickup as two one-ways, the park's permit the passengers' own, the 407 at cost, the gratuity guide, and the hybrid and electric article's EV doing the run with a Huntsville charge each way (there are no chargers in the park).
A worked lodge weekend
A Forest Hill couple in their sixties to Arowhon Pines for the colour week's Friday to Friday, an Escalade, two one-ways. Friday 10:00 a.m.: the pickup — two bags, two paddles (theirs), the binoculars; 10:15 the 401 to the 400 (ahead of the exodus — the September Friday's 400 is the Muskoka article's from 2); 11:15 Barrie; 12:10 Bracebridge; 12:40 Huntsville — the 60 east; 1:00 Dwight's Village Market (the lodge's wine allowance and the couple's chocolate); 1:25 the West Gate — the lodge guests' pass; the 60 in its first colour — the Hardwood Lookout's maples at km 14; 1:40 the Arowhon Road's turn at km 15 — eight kilometres of gravel, three hills, one grouse, at 40 with the Escalade's clearance; 1:55 the lodge's door — the log dining room, the lake, the bags to the cabin by the staff, the couple's week begun. The chauffeur: the eight kilometres back, the 60 west with the Visitor Centre's deck at 2:30 for his own photograph, Huntsville at 3:30, the 11 and the 400, the 6:30 depot. The following Friday 11:00 a.m.: the same Escalade down the Arowhon Road in the peak's full colour, the couple at the door with the bags and a week's silence, the 60 west through the colour weekend's Friday-morning traffic (the eastbound lane stopped at the Lookout; the westbound clear), Huntsville at 12:15, the Forest Hill door at 3:15. Two one-ways, 1,120 kilometres including the empties, eight days of a park without a car, and a couple who booked the same week for the following year before they got out.
Algonquin quick reference
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Drive | 280 km, 3 h to the West Gate (400 → 11 → Huntsville → Hwy 60 east 45 min); 3.5 h on a summer Friday; the 407 to the 400; the daily vehicle permit at the gate or reserved online |
| Highway 60 | 56 km West Gate (km 0) → East Gate (km 56): Canoe Lake and the Portage Store (14); the Arowhon Road (15); Cache Lake and the Bartlett landing (23); Lake of Two Rivers and Killarney (31); Centennial Ridges (37); the Lookout (40); Spruce Bog (42); the Visitor Centre (43); the Opeongo Road (46); the Logging Museum (55); 80 posted, 70 for the moose |
| The lodges | Arowhon Pines (Little Joe Lake, 8 km of gravel — the SUV); Killarney Lodge (Lake of Two Rivers, the 60's lot); Bartlett Lodge (Cache Lake, the lodge's boat from the landing); May–mid-Oct; meals and canoes included; a year ahead for the colours |
| Outside | Huntsville (45 min W — the chauffeur's base); Dwight; Oxtongue Lake's resorts and outfitters; Whitney and the East Gate; Barry's Bay; the park's campgrounds and yurts |
| Day trip | 6 a.m. out → the gate at 9 → the Visitor Centre → a trail → the Portage Store lunch → a Canoe Lake paddle → the Logging Museum → the gate at 5 → the 9 p.m. door; 13–14 h on the day rate |
| Colours | Peak the last week of Sept / first of Oct (a week before Muskoka); the two weekends' gridlock on the 60 and at the Lookout; go on a weekday, or the 5 a.m. weekend with a 2 p.m. departure |
| Moose | Dawn and dusk, May–June, the 60's roadside wetlands and the Mizzy Lake trail; the chauffeur at 70 with the full pull-off; the gate's sightings board |
| Canoe trips | The drop at Algonquin Outfitters (Oxtongue, Opeongo) or the Portage Store (Canoe Lake) with the packs; the pickup a week later at the landing; the camps' handovers |
| East / winter | The East Gate → Barry's Bay → Ottawa (3 h) or Bancroft → Belleville → Toronto (3.5 h); the 60 plowed; the lodges closed; the Fen Lake, Minnesing and Leaf Lake ski trails; the dog-sledding; the Mew Lake yurts |
| Vehicle / rate | Escalade / Navigator (Arowhon, the packs); S-Class (Killarney, Bartlett); Sprinter (a party of 8, the canoe trip); the flat Algonquin rates by lodge / gate; the day rate; two one-ways for the lodge week; the EV with a Huntsville charge |
Booking the run
The engine shows the Algonquin rates by gate and lodge and the day rate; the hourly chauffeur page books the colour day; the multi-day hire article the weekend with the Huntsville base; dispatch confirms the lodge's landing or road and the outfitter's put-in. Book the colour week's lodge a year ahead and the car when the lodge confirms.
