Hiking
Hiking
Arrowhead Provincial Park
Early Spring in the Outdoors
Many people are familiar with Arrowhead Provincial Park, one of Ontario’s most popular and well known parks within the region of Muskoka. Campers and day trekkers arrive throughout the warmer months to enjoy the park’s various trails, sandy beaches and sparkling lakes, campfires and mosquitos.
Once the itch of those mosquito bites become just a fading memory of summer past this park really begins to shine, in what was at one time known as “the off season”.
Arrowhead Provincial Park has always been one of our absolute favourite locations for winter and early spring in the outdoors. Over the years many snowy days have been spent enjoying winter in Muskoka, partaking in various activities within the park with friends or other family members.
Get Outside!
As we creep closer to the official beginning of spring, winter is still gracing us with its presence here in cottage country. With the arrival of March Break and warmer temperatures comes a great opportunity to head outside to play and embrace the beauty of this time of year. Temperatures are predicted to hover around the freezing mark during this upcoming week so dress appropriately and join in on some fun in the outdoors.
Arrowhead Provincial Park is quickly gaining notoriety as a snowy destination for winter recreational activities within cottage country.
The park offers great cross country skiing, snowshoeing and skating, along with basic cabin rentals, a spacious visitor centre with room to relax or warm by the fireplace. It is definitely a place to check out during the snowy months whether you are visiting for a few days or a few hours.
Several years ago the park created one of the first and most popular skating trails in Muskoka. This 1.3 km skate trail winds its way through the forest offering a great experience for all skating abilities. If you’re lucky there will have been a recent snow fall. The surrounding trees blanketed in heavy snow create that special feeling that only winter can bring.
Parking is available close to the trail head. There are a number of benches and picnic tables available for tying up skates, as well as a bonfire to warm up beside when fingers and toes get frosty.
Throughout January and February the park hosts Fire and Ice. This special event takes place weekly on Friday and Saturday evenings when weather and ice conditions cooperate. It’s a fun activity to do with the family or friends and a great idea for date night with your special someone after a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant . The skate trail is softly illuminated with tiki torches lining the snowbanks throughout the length of the trail. If you haven’t skated under the stars this is the perfect opportunity to lace up your skates and share in this wonderful experience.
Skating Trail in the Forest
We usually visit the skate trail several times throughout the winter with friends, family or just the two of us. Avoiding peak Saturday crowds ensures us lots of freedom on the skate trail and always a great time.
At the time of writing this article, the ice trail remained open but its essential to check with the park snow conditions daily to ensure that you can skate. As we all know conditions can vary widely from day to day. If you happen to miss out on skating this year, I highly recommend that you plan on visiting the trail next winter. If don’t get the opportunity to skate this season why not explore the park by ski or snowshoe?
One of Ontario's Best Ski Destinations
Arrowhead Provincial Park is renowned as a one of Ontario’s top cross country ski destinations.The park offers 28 km of classic ski trails as well as 16 km of skate ski trails. The well marked and maintained trails are of various lengths and range from beginner to expert so there are options for all skill levels. Arrowhead Nordic Ski Club and Arrowhead Park are hosts to several events throughout the winter such as the Muskoka Loppet, The Special Olympics, Elementary Ski Races as well as ski lessons and other great programs and events.
If you have skied in Arrowhead previously you’ll likely agree that these are some of the best ski trails that central Ontario has to offer. Our favourite trail in the park is the Arrowhead Lake trail with a winding and hilly terrain with great lake views. Throughout the season you have the option of connecting with the Beaver Meadow Trail for a longer, and more isolated ski.
When we are looking for a bit of a change of scenery The Big East River trail offers some pretty forest and river views. From there we often ski the Roe skate/ski trail or head over to the Lumby Trail for some more fun. There are other ski trails within the park that are very nice as well and worth skiing. These are just the trails we use most often.
The trails remain in good condition for this time of year for both skate and classic thanks to the park’s skilled trail groomers. Checking trail conditions prior to your visit is recommended just the same. The snow and trail reports are updated every morning by the Park staff.
Snowshoe Adventures
For the snowshoe enthusiasts or winter hikers Arrowhead offers just over 8 km of snowshoe trails.The Stubbs Falls snowshoe trail will lead you through a mature hardwood forest and along the Little East River as it quietly flows from Arrowhead Lake before cascading over the falls and beyond. You can get quite close to the falls for some beautiful photo opportunities or just pause and take it all in. Caution must be exercised around moving water and unstable ice conditions and park safety boundaries respected.
There are sections on the trail that snowshoes are seldom required due to easy access and popularity of the trail though it is certainly a beautiful experience, non the less. The Mayflower Lake trail is a shorter and likely less busy trail to check out, in addition to the Stubb’s Falls Trail. Of course, at any time you can venture off trail and wander through the bush to do some exploring of your own. The beauty of that is that it can feel like you are far from everyone else yet you are actually quite close by. Having said this it is important to respectfully stay off the ski and skate/ ski trails with both snowshoes and boots in order to keep groomed trails safe for skiers.
As more people continue to enjoy and experience the outdoors in Arrowhead during the winter season it has become necessary to plan ahead by reserving your day pass as well as additional Fire and Ice passes. Due to high volumes of visitors during peak times there are times when the park reaches its maximum limit has to turn people away. Don’t be disappointed !
It's Still Winter in the Park
The lure of a bit of sunshine and temps just below freezing during Saturday of this past weekend tempted us to try for a last minute day pass into the Park. No problem! We were in the car and on our way in no time to take some photos of Stubbs Falls and the Skate Trail for our blog post before getting out for a ski around Arrowhead Lake.
Upon arrival we easily found a parking space not far from the beginning of the Stubbs Falls Trail. This is the area of the trail that I mentioned earlier on that is pretty packed down and snowshoes are rarely needed, so we were able to walk wearing just our boots. We came across several other people who were out enjoying the trail on our way to the falls but though we found it busy, I wouldn’t say it was crowded. I think the earlier in the day that you can get to the park the less busy it is.
The ice is better on the skate trail before the sun hits the surface and begins to soften it. We stopped by around noon and found it quite busy with reasonable ice conditions considering the time of year.
We chatted with park staff who said they have been working hard to maintain the ice trail as far into the season as they can but it really becomes a day to day thing once March comes around. There are a few spots where pylons mark some of the more sketchy spots but it makes for an interesting skate.
By the time we were on the ski trail it was all blue skies and sunshine. The ski around Arrowhead Lake never disappoints. Winding and hilly, pretty rock outcrops or a view of the lake, easily pull you eyes away from watching your ski tips as you glide gracefully or not so gracefully along the track set. The lonely skate skier that passed us was having to work pretty hard with soft snow conditions especially leading up to the big hill along side the lake where the trail is exposed to the sun.
With some of the usual spring forrest debris from the recent winds on the trail, areas of soft snow alternating with occasional ice patches present a variety of trail surfaces but most of the track set remains in good condition for a spring ski.
The Beaver Meadow trail that connects to the lake trail was closed, I suspect for the season as there are several areas of flowing water and run off that open up during warmer weather.
We had a great time and hope to get out skiing again soon. Spring may be just around the corner but there is still time to get outside and enjoy what winter we have left!
Looking for a cottage near Arrowhead? You can check out current Lake Vernon real estate here.
