Booth’s Rock Trail – AMAZING TRAIL in Algonquin PP

On Monday August 31st, my friends and I headed to Booths Rock Trail in Algonquin PP to check it out!

The trail started off pretty good and just kept getting better and better!

It was extremely woodsy, lots of roots to climb over and rocks to avoid and all three of us loved this trail the best out of all the ones we did in the park this visit!

Up and up we go!!!

Many parts of the trail looked like they were taken right out of a movie.  Almost fairy-tale like, some areas reminded me of  happy fairly tales landscapes, and some the kind where children disappeared in the forest never to be seen again!  hahaha.

And up and up!!! and then….

We were rewarded with beautiful views of Rock Lake!

We hung out at the top, had a snack and enjoyed the view for a bit. Then we set out to continue on the trail. It was warm and sunny out and we were planning on going for a swim in Rock Lake afterwards along the end of the trail. I’d been there before and it’s a great little spot to go spend a few hours! First, we had to finish the trail….we started our descent (people were in front of us so when this happens I generally shoot the pictures behind us, instead of in front of us).

Just after we stopped to take this cool photo of a cairn someone had left, we came upon this massive set of stairs!!!  I wish I would’ve thought of counting them before I got partway down. There was no way I was going back up, so let’s just say, there were alot of them! So many I couldn’t get them all in one photo!  🙂

When we finally completed what seemed like an endless amount of stairs, we went down a trail and soon arrived at Post 10, the Barclay Estate.  We all decided we’d like to check it out and it was only a short walk off the trail.  We read about the Estate in our booklet and walked around where the buildings used to be. Then we saw some people down by the water swimming, so we headed down to the lake to check things out there!

After leaving the Barclay estate we headed back to the trail and it quickly turned into what looked like a road of some sort. When we looked in the book we discovered that where we were walking was once the busiest railroad in Canada! It was said there was a train every twenty minutes. Amazing how things can change over time. We were now hiking there, pretty much all alone in the middle of a forest and 125 years ago, it was an entirely different scene! COOL BEANS!

The old railway bed was extremely wet due to the rain the last few weeks. I thought I’d be a smarty pants and hike on an upper trail that ran parallel to the lower road.  My friends weren’t quite sure the two would meet up and after walking a few minutes we discovered they were right, so they turned around. However, I saw a lovely climb on some really awesome looking rocks and I could not wait to make my way down them, so I opted to climb down instead of walking around. It was soooo much fun!!!!

After that, the trail is pretty much straight all the way down to the parking lot with really nice views of Rock Lake to your left. In many places there are small side trails that lead to the water, and most are great places to eat a snack, have a picnic, relax and go for a refreshing swim.

After some searching we found a great spot and hung out there for a while, ate some food, had a swim, and enjoyed our beautiful surroundings!

Eventually, it was time to pack up and head back to our campsite to get dinner started.

Just before the parking lot there are some areas where you can see water on both sides of the trail. Then before you know it you are back at you car.  If you are not physically able, or just plain don’t want to hike the entire trail but still want to enjoy some semi-private swimming on Rock Lake, just hike the trail backwards. It will take you about 10-15 minutes to get to some nice swimming spots. I personally would recommend hiking the whole trail as it is a really good one, if you think you can handle it. It’s is a new favorite of mine and I am looking forward to doing it again sometime soon!

This is the rock face beside where we hiked up to. You can see it along the way to the parking area of Booths Rock Trail. Kind of cool we were way up there!

Well, as we are now heading back to our campsite this means the end for another Algonquin hiking trail. Best for last!!!

We stopped at Algonquin Outfitters on the way back to Mew Lake Campground to get the girls some coffee, as they said it was so much better than the packets they brought to make on the stove. I got ice cream and it was delicious!!!  Then we had a yummy dinner and a relaxing evening by the fire, enjoying the sounds of nature, exhausted from our long but amazing hike today. Check out my post on the camping trip itself, being posted here soon with details of  my first face to face encounter with a bear!

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog! As usual, if you have any questions, comments, issues, etc, etc, please give me a shout! I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Hiking!