Quetico Provincial Park

Quetico covers around four thousand seven hundred square kilometres of Shield country with about six hundred lakes, and it is managed as wilderness: no motors, no roads, no permanent facilities, no marked campsites in most of it, and a daily entry quota by access point. It adjoins the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, together forming one of the largest protected canoe wildernesses on earth. Anishinaabe pictographs in red ochre are found on cliff faces at several lakes. Portages are cleared but unimproved. Fishing is barbless and largely catch-and-release, and cans and bottles are prohibited.

History

People of the Paleo-Indian culture lived in this country around 8000 BC, and rock art such as a canoe pictograph at Agnes Lake survives from early times. Ontario established the Quetico Forest Reserve in 1909, the same year the United States created the neighbouring Superior National Forest, and Quetico became a provincial park in 1913; road access came only in 1954, logging was stopped entirely in 1971, and motor vehicles, boats included, were banned in 1979 (Wikipedia, Quetico Provincial Park).

What's there

• The paddle-only wilderness - no motors, roads or developed sites.
• The pictographs - ochre rock paintings on lakeside cliffs.
• The six hundred lakes - a connected network crossed by portages.
• The Boundary Waters link - a joint wilderness spanning the border.

When to go

June to September; ice comes off in May and returns in November. Blackflies peak in June, mosquitoes in July. Quotas mean permits for popular entry points book out well ahead.

Practical notes

Entry permits are quota-limited and must be reserved. There are no facilities of any kind and rescue is slow. Cans, bottles and motors are prohibited and enforced. Navigation is by map and compass.

Nearby

Atikokan is the gateway; Lake of the Woods lies west.

Key facts