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Barron Canyon

Information for planning a canoe trip through the Barron Canyon in Algonquin Park.

The Barron Canyon contains Algonquin Park's largest and most impressive rock features. As its name suggests, it's a canyon—it has some really big walls made of exposed granite. Starting at the Achray put-in, it's a beautiful, almost entirely flatwater experience of the Canadian Shield. You'll paddle through both excellent little lakes—large and small—and charming river sections. The tiny bit of moving water can be portaged if you're paddling a fancy-light boat, which you might need since there are a lot of short portages on this trip. See the map below for the location of all those. If you're not after whitewater, this is one of the best little routes Algonquin has to offer, thanks to its variety and beauty. It makes for a fun little adventure, rather than just a 'lake-portage-lake-portage repeat' experience.

If you take a left at the end of Lake Stratton, you can walk to a pretty sweet natural waterslide at High Falls. It's its own tourist attraction accessible from the road, so be prepared for a crowd in the summer.

Planning information

Nights

This depends on how fast you want to go, but 2-4 nights would you could get from Achray to Squirrel Rapids. 

Booking

• Since this route is within Algonquin Park, you'll need to book your sites through the Ontario Parks reservation system. You'll need to be at your computer five months ahead of time to the day to get the best sites on "the Cascades" near where the canyon starts. If those aren't available, you'll have to take the route through Ooze Lake, which has an alarmingly accurate name. They didn't make any sites on that lake for a reason. 

• Achray camp area has "jump off" sites, which are campsites near the launch area that are intended for canoeists arriving late. Since they are meant for an overnight before your trip (not for hanging out for the day) they are super simple sites and at Achray, they are tucked in behind their large maintenance building. But the best part is they apply the same rules as backcountry camping, not car camping, so the 9-person limit applies rather than 6.

Route

• Put in: Achray Campground on Grand Lake. Alternatively, you could launch at the take-out and paddle upriver, but I don't think that would be as good of an experience. It can be done as a there-and-back-again trip as far as you want to go, or as a one-way trip with a shuttle. 

• Take out: Squirrel Rapids. 

Portages

• There are two main options that are shown below. It's either 10 portages (with 590m the longest) or 6 (with 640m the longest). 

• They are reasonable portages without any killer elevations and are well-maintained. See Maps by Jeff for precise elevation information on all of the portages.

Shuttle service

• It's an easy one to shuttle yourselves if you have two cars, if not, you can arrange a shuttle with Algonquin Portage Outfitters or Algonquin Bound Outfitters.

Resources

• Algonquin Map by Jeff The entire digital map is available online for planning. We highly suggest buying the map for on-the-water though.

High Falls natural water slide

There's a pretty cool natural waterslide that's a bit off the path that is worth checking out if the weather is warm enough. It's also just generally a nice swimming area. There's road access to the area, so it can be a bit busy in the summer with hike-ins. Don't be too annoyed at them, it's 4km walk in, so they earned it in their own way.

It's all marked on the map below—zoom in to have a look. Note that, oddly, there's no connecting portage trail from St. Andrew's Lake portage so you'll need to plan accordinly. The location is marked on the map above.