Winnipeg Road Trip: the best and worst

[vaneramos]

I finished uploading photos from the trip last night. You can view the entire set of 51 images here. Finally, here is a list of ten things I liked most about the trip, places and things to do I would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity, followed by a few things that get thumbs down.

The best

1. Scenery along the TransCanada Highway through Northern Ontario: some sections are tedious, but the scenery in others makes up for it with views of Lake Superior, mountains and cliffs, and secluded lakes. Particularly beautiful are the sections between Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa, Terrace Bay and Thunder Bay, and Dryden west to the Manitoba border.
   
2. Ouimet Canyon (photo above): 90 minutes northeast of Thunder Bay, just 11 km off the TransCanada Highway and a 1 km hike from the parking lot, the scenic outlooks in this provincial park are breathtaking.
   
3. Oak Hammock Marsh: anyone interested in birds should not miss this Southern Manitoba hotspot. We saw 35 species in one very windy morning, also muskrats and Richardson's ground squirrels.
   
4. Unison Festival: a heart-warming, unforgettable experience.
   
5. Winnipeg: a beautiful city, much to see and do.
   
6. High Falls Motel and Cottages (Wawa): a great place to spend the night, a weekend or more. Affordable, equipped with a good kitchenette, friendly hosts, near the boundary of Lake Superior Provincial Park.
   
7. Best Western Lakeshore Inn (Kenora): the rooms have panoramic views of Lake-of-the-Woods.
   
8. Pukaskwa National Park: we stopped for a picnic lunch, took a short walk through a woods drenched in old man's beard and other lichens, and wished we had much more time to spend. The Lake Superior shoreline near the visitor centre is exquisite.
   
9. The Plaza Restaurant (Kenora): best Greek food I've had, friendly owners, but it's not cheap.
   
10. Michipicoten River Village: just off the TransCanada Highway near Wawa, a pretty, peaceful spot with lots to see and do. Canadian Geographic offers useful information. Danny and I explored Silver Falls.

The Worst

1. Information about Sleeping Giant Provincial Park: it's a large, beautiful park with lots to see and do, but information is hard to find. We drove all the way through the park to the "visitor centre" at Marie Louise Lake to find it was really only a registration booth for the campground there. They were out of weekly information newspapers. The Ontario Parks website does not seem to provide any maps for its parks.
   
2. Thunder Bay: in the midst of breathtaking scenery lies one of the ugliest cities I've ever visited. The shoreline is barricaded with rows of aging wharves and factories. We couldn't find a place to view Sleeping Giant and picturesque islands along the horizon.
   
3. Sudbury highway services: Non-existent. Early in the trip I learned to start looking for gas as soon as the tank reached half, because Northern Ontario settlements are few, but every single hamlet offers a gas station. On the return trip we started looking for a gas station and washrooms about half an hour west of Sudbury, and didn't find one until we passed the French River, almost an hour south on Highway 69. Not one single sign pointed to a rest stop or gas off highway. At population 157,000, Sudbury is the largest city between Winnipeg and Toronto. Obviously, few people have any reason to travel there.
   
4. Kenora dining: probably because it relies heavily on tourism, inexpensive dining is hard to find.
   
5. Southern Ontario drivers: The TransCanada Highway through Northern Ontario is mostly one lane each way with frequent passing lanes. Fortunately everyone pulls into the right-hand lane and lets faster traffic pass. As soon as we approached Sudbury and passed south toward Toronto, most drivers just sat in the passing lane. And instead of leaving one another alone, they're passive-aggressive.