Gatineau Park

Gatineau Park runs about three hundred and sixty square kilometres from the edge of Ottawa into the Gatineau Hills, close enough that people walk trails at lunchtime. Pink Lake is meromictic, its deep water never mixing with the surface, which leaves the bottom without oxygen; algae in the upper layer turn it a strong turquoise, and it holds a stickleback stranded when the Champlain Sea withdrew. Mackenzie King, prime minister for over twenty years, left his estate to the country, including deliberately assembled ruins he collected from demolished buildings in London and Ottawa and arranged as picturesque fragments in the garden.

History

People lived in and used the park's area long before European settlers came, and it later saw farming, logging, hunting and industry. A recreational park in the Gatineau Hills was proposed as early as 1903, and the Dominion Parks Commissioner James Harkin argued in 1913 that it should be the first great national park of the east; the park was created in 1938, when money was set aside to buy Gatineau woodlands, and it remains the only federal park that is not a national park (Wikipedia, Gatineau Park).

What's there

• Pink Lake - a turquoise meromictic lake with a boardwalk circuit.
• The Mackenzie King ruins - assembled architectural fragments in a garden.
• The Champlain Lookout - a viewpoint over the Ottawa valley from the escarpment.
• The autumn colour - hardwood forest peaking in early October.

When to go

May to October; the autumn colour season in early October is the busiest and parking fills early. Winter brings extensive cross-country skiing. Swimming in Pink Lake is prohibited.

Good to know

Pink Lake is closed to swimming to protect its chemistry, and the boardwalk keeps visitors off the shore. Autumn weekend parking fills by mid-morning and shuttles are needed.

Nearby

The Canadian Museum of History lies south; Ottawa is across the river.

Key facts