Agawa Canyon Tour Train

The train runs about a hundred and eighty kilometres north from Sault Ste. Marie on the old Algoma Central line, climbing through granite country over trestles and past lakes to the floor of the Agawa Canyon, where there is no road and a two-hour stop lets passengers walk to waterfalls and a lookout of about three hundred steps. The whole trip takes around nine hours. The Group of Seven travelled this line in a converted boxcar between 1918 and 1923, sketching from it, and much of what they painted is visible from the window. Autumn colour is the peak season and those departures sell out well ahead.

History

The Algoma Central Railway was chartered on 11 August 1899 by the industrialist Francis H. Clergue, who needed it to carry logs to his pulp mill and iron ore from the Helen Mine near Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie. His company went bankrupt in 1903 with the line only 90 kilometres long; building resumed in 1909, and in 1914 the railway reached Hearst, 476 kilometres north. Regular passenger trains for canoeists, cottagers and snowmobilers ran until 2015, and since 2022 the southern part of the line has been owned by Watco as the Agawa Canyon Railroad (Wikipedia, Algoma Central Railway).

Highlights

• The canyon floor - a two-hour stop in a place with no road access.
• The Group of Seven country - the landscape they painted from this line.
• The trestles - high crossings over rivers in granite country.
• The lookout climb - about three hundred steps to a canyon viewpoint.

When to go

Late September to mid October for colour, which is the reason most people go and books months ahead; summer departures run with lower demand. The train does not operate all year.

Good to know

It is a nine-hour day with limited time actually off the train. Colour peak varies by year and a late or early season can miss it. Autumn tickets sell out months in advance.

Nearby

Lake Superior Provincial Park lies north; Sault Ste. Marie is the departure point.