Surrounded by shining waters and cloaked in towering pines, Finlayson Point Provincial Park lies just south of the Village of Temagami.
Sharing a shoreline with the Lake Temagami Skyline Preserve, a protected ring of pine forest that surrounds the lake, the park provides visitors with access to Temagami – a treasured part of Ontario that many travelers see only a glimpse of as they head north or south along the highway.
Finlayson Point is just off Highway 11, the northern part of the Trans-Canada Highway, but seems a world away from the hustle and bustle of most people’s everyday lives.
Here’s why you need to check it out:
Your home base
Finlayson Point Provincial Park is a fantastic home base when exploring the beauty and history of Temagami. The campground has 117 campsites, 41 of them electrical, and 15 pull-through for RVs.
The park has one full-sized comfort station with flush-toilets, showers and laundry facilities, and one mini-comfort station with showers and flush toilets. There are also two washroom buildings with flush toilets.
Also an option: the Lake Temagami cabin is a beautiful accommodation available in the park, set on the north shore of the lake with great views from inside and out, and just a short walk from the main comfort station.
The cabin is finished with tongue & groove pine and decorated with log furniture and an electric fireplace, this cozy cabin is where you can unwind and relax, while enjoying the recreational opportunities Temagami has to offer.
Destination: Temagami
Lake Temagami – the big lake
Lake Temagami is the hub of the region.
This huge, sprawling lake is 45 km from north to south, and 35 km east to west, made up of long narrow arms, like spurs, from its centre. Its area covers over 20,000 ha, and at its deepest, it’s more than 100 m to the bottom.
Over 1,200 islands dot its surface, and the length of its shoreline has been estimated at 5,000 km. Lake Temagami is the centre of this world-class canoeing area.
Boating and fishing are also top activities on the big lake.
Lake Temagami is so large and aquatically diverse that the species range is huge! The lake seems to have every kind of habitat.
Species include Lake Trout, Walleye, Small-mouth Bass, Northern Pike, Whitefish, Perch, and Burbot.
Finlayson Point’s boat basin has docks, a boat launch, a fish cleaning table, and canoe racks for boaters and anglers who want to take advantage of the park’s location on beautiful and fish-filled Lake Temagami.
If you want to moor your boat during your stay, you can rent a slip and park it for the duration.
Hiking Temagami
All of this splendour is surrounded by the Lake Temagami Skyline Reserve, a unique, protected belt of forest that rings the lake. This is a landscape of rugged Canadian Shield, towering pines, and thousands of sparkling lakes.
Here are just a few of the hiking opportunities you’ll find here:
White Bear Forest (and the Temagami Fire Tower!)
White Bear Forest Conservation Reserve is just a 10-minute drive from the park. It boasts 20+ km of trails that wind through 400-year-old pines.
Want a bird’s-eye view of Finlayson Point? The 100-foot-tall Temagami Fire Tower is an easy walk from the parking lot.
Once you’ve climbed back down, you can hike into the closest pine forest right from the tower.
White Bear Forests network of hiking trails make the region’s ancient old-growth forests very accessible.
Follow the lakeshore and hike to hilltop views (beautiful in any season, but you can’t beat these fall colours!).
Temagami Island Trail
Temagami Island, the largest in the lake, has one of the largest old-growth forests which you can hike through, following trails that pass beneath the ancient pines.
The trails are a short boat ride or paddle from the Lake Temagami access road, extending 18 km from Highway 11 to the centre of the lake. There you’ll find a municipal boat launching area, docks and parking.
Cliff Lake
The trails at Cliff Lake Conservation Reserve circle around the edge of a small bedrock plateau contained by curving lakes, with amazing views over Cliff Lake itself.
You’ll hike through a range of habitats: Jack Pine forests and rock barrens covered in lichen; a old-growth Red Pine forest on the cliffside; and a sugar maple forest at the northern limit of its range.
The trails at Cliff Lake are part of the Ottawa-Temiskaming Highland Trail system, so there are even more hiking opportunities in the area.
The local community
Bear Island
One of the largest islands in Lake Temagami, Bear Island is home to the Temagami First Nation. The community lies at the centre of the traditional homeland of the Teme-Augama Anishinabai, known as N’dakimenan (“our Land”).
“Teme-Augama Anishinabai” means ““”Deep Water People” in Ojibwe. Lake Temagami is made up of a number of deep faults in the bedrock of the Canadian Shield. Its deepest point is 110 m. Many of the lake’s shorelines drop off quickly into the depths: dimii-agaming or “deep water by the shore” in Ojibwe.
This First Nation’s ancestors were the first to walk the portages and paddle the waters here, after the glaciers melted away and before the forests grew thousands of years ago.
Temagami
The Municipality of Temagami hugs the shores of Lake Temagami’s Northeast Arm.
The village was founded in 1903 when the railway to the north was built and a steamship line began supplying lodges, cottages and canoe camps on the lake. The Temagami Canoe Company, supplier of cedar-canvas canoes to forest rangers and canoe campers, was established in 1929.
Keewaydin, the oldest youth canoe camp in the world, relocated from New England to an island on the lake in 1898, after a canoe trip in the region.
Marten River: the Winter Camp
Less than 30 minutes south of Finlayson Point, Marten River Provincial Park lies at the southern edge of the Temagami Region. Marten River is home to “The Winter Camp,” a replica logging camp that brings a bygone era to life.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, farmers turned into lumberjacks each winter, living far from home in isolated log cabin villages. Today, visitors can see the logging camp’s recreated office, bunkhouse, cookery, scaler’s shack, horse stable, hay barn and blacksmith’s shop when you visit the park. An outdoor trail exhibits a number of larger pieces of equipment.
Adjacent to the Winter Camp is the logging museum and theatre, filled with artifacts that have been donated through the years by people whose fathers, grandfathers, or great-grandfathers had been lumberjacks.
(P.S. Marten River Provincial Park is the southern gateway to the Temagami area — it’s another great basecamp option!)
The Town of Cobalt
Check out the historic silver mining town of Cobalt, 45 minutes north of Temagami. This town’s mining heritage has made it a National Historic Site. It was once the richest silver-mining region in the world.
The mining museum, historic buildings and a tour of the historic Colonial Silver Mine are all worthwhile stops.
Members of the Group of Seven including A.Y. Jackson and Franklin Carmichael, painted the early 20th century mining town, capturing the stark industrial landscape.
