Arrowhead Provincial Park, Falls and Bends

Arrowhead Provincial Park is located just north of Huntsville, about a 2 hour drive from home. There are a few nice lakes, a picturesque waterfall and the meandering Big East River that all provide numbers activities for visitors. One of the main attractions in the spring is the presence of a large number of trillium flowers, the provincial flower of Ontario. With the springtime warmup in full swing and the flowers in bloom, I decided to take a weekend trip up to the park to visit Stubbs Falls and the nearby flowering woods.

Afterwards, I headed down to see the largest lake in the park, Arrowhead Lake, where I explored the shoreline to take in expansive views of the trees just starting to display their fresh bright spring foliage.

Also within the park is the "Big Bend Lookout", which is a very short trail to a wooden deck overlooking a loop in the twisty Big East River that flows through the park. The view is nice, but nowhere near as impressive as some similarly named locations elsewhere. It would probably look quite nice with a fresh layer of snow in the early or late winter months. As I stood there taking in the view, the rapid erosion of the banks was readily apparent with chunks of the sandy slopes falling into the river below.

My final stop for the day was a small trail around Mayflower Lake near the park entrance. As I worked my way through the woods near the lake edge, there was a lot of recent beaver activity with logs, tree stumps and fresh wood chips scattered about the ground. I counted at least 2 or three beaver lodges in the lake, but didn't see any of the animals at work. There was, however, a rather large snapping turtle sunning itself on a rock near the waters edge who stayed put just long enough for me to capture a portrait with my telephoto lens.