The international border between the US and Canada runs, roughly east-west, across the center of Lake Ontario. Niagara Falls can be visited from the Canadian and American sides. In fact, tourists wave hello to each other from both sides. Our Great Lakes loop began at the Falls on the American side. We camped at Four Mile Creek State Park and day-tripped to the Falls. It’s a busy place. Niagara Falls is on many international visitors’ bucket list.

We took the Maid of the Mist boat trip, which takes you into the wind and mist at the base of the Falls. It’s touristy, crowded, and absolutely wonderful. It’s a great way to experience the power of the falls. With a combined flow rate of 750,000 gallons of water per second, “mist” is a bit of an understatement.

The standard issue blue ponchos were definitely needed

From Niagara Falls, we traveled east along the lakeshore to Alexandria Bay and the Thousand Islands area. At Grass Point State Park, we enjoyed our evening walks near the St. Lawrence River. We decided that this very pretty area is worthy of a repeat visit.

From here, we crossed into Canada and spent two nights in Ontario’s Darlington Provincial Park.

For those of you thinking about Provincial Park camping, here’s a tip about electric hook-ups: when making reservations, be sure to read the details noting the distance from the camping pad to the electric pedestal. Twenty-five meters isn’t uncommon. The posts are often positioned on the road (or stashed in the woods) and are usually shared. A 50ft extension cord is a good idea. Some parks rent extension cords on a first-come, first-served basis. Best to come prepared to go the distance.

Darlington was our first experience with this. Our electric site became a non-electric site when our cord wouldn’t reach the pedestal. But otherwise, we had fun riding bikes and being along the lake.

We backtracked to the west in order to visit the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. There weren’t many camping options available, so we stayed in a little motel in St. Catharine’s for two nights. Our visit to the Canadian side of the Falls was also impressive. The view of Horseshoe Falls is better and the walk along the lake is lovely, even if very busy.

Another way to view the Falls. Looks like fun!

Proof that we were there. We’ve seen the falls from both sides now…

The CN (Canadian National) tower looms large over the landscape, providing tourists with spectacular views and the area with radio communication reception.

The Canadian park pays more homage to Nikola Tesla, inventor and futurist, best known for developing Alternating Current (AC). Streets, squares, and parks are named for him, which is especially fitting near the site of Canada’s first hydro-electric plant. His inventions, including the induction motor and Tesla coil, transformed industry. Such genius comes along very rarely.

While in this area, we day-tripped to delightful Niagara-on-the-Lake. Certainly it’s a tourist destination with shopping and dining, but it’s also has a large lakeside beach park, lots of flowers, and historic buildings. Our afternoon stroll was cut short by a downpour, but not before we realized why this spot is so popular.

We continued traveling west to the shore of Lake Huron. In the town of Goderich, we enjoyed a lunch of perch tacos in the old railroad station.

A big part of Goderich is under the lake. The Compass salt mine is the world’s largest underground mine. Located 1,800 feet down, it’s as deep as the CN Tower is tall. The rock salt is used around the Great Lakes to clear roadways of winter snow and ice.

We also spent an afternoon in Kincardine. This small town has a lot going for it. Lots of interesting shops – and music being piped onto the main street! At The Market Stand in the town center, we picked up fresh local blueberries, handmade tortillas and a few other items we couldn’t resist. On our walk about town, we discovered the town recreational trail which led us to the small harbor and the lighthouse.

The Great Lakes often look more like an ocean. At the waterfront, we saw windsurfers and board surfers trying to catch Lake Huron’s best waves.

Our destination for later that day was MacGregor Point Provincial Park, near Port Elgin on Lake Huron. We had a great time there. Like in most Provincial Parks, camp sites are well-spaced and, usually, there are trees and plants between sites, offering a fair amount of privacy.

We took off on our bikes and rode to the lakefront. Shorelines here are more rocky than sandy. Great for rock collecting!

We found a stand of pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) in a bog in the park.

And is often the case, the bike and woodland trails weren’t busy, so we had this scenery all to ourselves.

A very scenic drive north along Georgian Bay brought us to our next destination, Killbear Provincial Park.

With almost 900 campsites in seven camping areas, this park is vast and very popular. We didn’t have the greatest campsite. Well, sometimes it goes that way. We had booked close to our trip dates, so were lucky to snag any sort of spot. Ours was really far from the bath house, right on our loop’s main road, and close to the well-traveled foot path to the beach and the kids’ bike path…oh, well. As sort of a lovely consolation prize, we found a stand of rare ghost pipe plants right in our campsite. There’s always a silver lining.

The park is deservedly a favorite for campers. There are bays, dams, beaches, recreation trails, and a fabulously rocky coastline. Massive pink granite boulders line the beach areas.

We rode our bikes and hiked trails. We left feeling there was still a lot of the park to explore another time.

Continuing along the Great Lakes scenic loop, we stayed at Chutes Provincial Park along the Aux Sables River. In comparison, this park is small and quiet. It gets its name from the historic timber chute built to guide logs past the waterfalls.

We hiked the Twin Bridges trail and stumbled upon the “blue and green chairs.” Definitely the best seats in the house for viewing the rapids.

Chutes is the only Provincial Park on the route between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie. It’s a good jumping off point for heading further north.

We next headed to Sault Ste. Marie, to see the locks from the Canadian side. We wanted to be near the waterfront, so we opted for a night at an in-town hotel rather than the campground outside of town. For us, it was a good decision. On an extended camping trip, an overnight in a hotel is a bit of a respite. We had a quiet pub dinner, a walk along the river, and called it an early evening to recharge our batteries.

The next morning, we went to the lock area and watched the process for boats being raised, or lowered, to continue their journey.

Lake Superior sits about 20 feet higher than the lower Great Lakes. Rapids race through the drop between the lakes. The locks allow boats to be lifted (or lowered) to safely bypass the rapids. Approaching boats radio ahead to advise the Lockmaster of their approach.

The Canadian locks are mostly for recreational boat travel. The locks on the American side provide service to the larger vessels. Actually, the American canal is being enlarged to accommodate even larger ships.

The service is free. Even smaller craft may use the locks. Here the lock system was being engaged for three travelers in kayaks.

Here’s what they avoided by using the locks. Note the construction equipment on the US side.

After Sault Ste Marie, we began our trek around Lake Superior’s north shore. The scenic route passes through Lake Superior Provincial Park, which still feels very remote. Roadsides are often left natural, with prairie grasses and wildflowers.

We drove through the Algoma Highlands and spent the night at a Harvest Host stop, the Algoma Highlands Wild Blueberry Farm and Winery. After a quiet night parked next to their growing fields, we continued on to Wawa.

Wawa held special interest for us. The American Wawa dairy and convenience stores got their start near our hometown in Pennsylvania. In Wawa, Ontario, we stayed at the Wawa Resort Campground. The owners were totally unimpressed that we were from Wawa, PA. Apparently others have come before us, so we weren’t a novelty. Oh, well. It was still a nice campground, we had fun, and we got a Wawa sticker for our van.

We hiked the campground trail along the Magpie River, and then went into the town of Wawa to see the sights.

The town of Wawa sits on the edge of the sparkling Wawa Lake. The lake is large, 1,600 acres, and is entirely spring-fed. The original Indian name of Wawungonk, means “place of clear water.” The local kids were having summertime fun leaping into the place of clear water.

The lake is large enough for plane traffic. The Wawa marina houses both boats and planes. Interpretive panels at the welcome center tell of times when the only winter travel was overland on foot or by dog sled. This area was wilderness for a long time.

The Wawa goose is the not-to-be-missed photo op.

From Wawa, we looped around the northern tip of Lake Superior and worked our way to Thunder Bay.

The Fort William Historical Park is a living history reproduction of a 19th century fur trading post. It’s one of North America’s largest living history sites. The original fort was further upriver, but the re-creation is as authentic as possible.

The stage is set to the year 1815 and costumed presenters stay in character while interacting with visitors.

One of the young actors who drew us into conversation.

The Fort contains more than 40 buildings. We visited the trading store for Indians, the company store for company members, the bakery, metalworking shop, and accounting headquarters. We thought visiting here might be corny, but it wasn’t. We learned a lot of history and the actors really were engaging.

The biggest time of the year for the fort would have been the July Grand Rendevous. At that time, buyers and sellers would converge to conduct business. The North West Trading Company members came to meet up with their suppliers. Voyageurs, who came by canoe, brought fur pelts from other parts of the Northwest. Furs were a huge, lucrative, and competitive business. In fact, for a period of time, beaver furs were the commodity of exchange. A “Beaver Made” was like a dollar.

The journey here, for many of the traders, took months. Below is the Kaministiquia River the “highway” for traders. Locals call it the Kam.

The business leaders of the North West Company were well-heeled. Their quarters and provisions were upscale.

This might have been the lodging space for the Fort captain. Voyageurs, who were often indigenous peoples or French-Canadians, would have camped near the river in a wigwam or underneath an overturned canoe.

The fort was more than a business hub, it was a social center where European settlers, fur traders and indigenous peoples came together culturally to share news, shop, and mingle.

Later, after skirmishes and bumpy times, the North West Company and Hudson Bay Company merged. But for this day in August 2026, we were still in 1815.

Outside the Fort, the park offers reasonably priced camping on the grounds. We stayed here for a few days while we toured the fort and Thunder Bay.

There’s a first time for everything. The restrooms and showers were in event trailers. Kind of no-frills, but everything was perfectly clean and worked fine for us.

At the Visitor’s Center store, we purchased bread made in open hearth ovens at the Fort bakery. In our visit to the bakery, we were told that during Rendevous, the bakery supplied bread for more than a 1,000 voyageurs and businessmen each day.

Thunder Bay itself is a sprawling city. The largest one for miles around, so it’s a destination for all kinds of shopping and activities. We found the City Market and refreshed our supply of fresh tomatoes. We weren’t quite ready to launch into urban mode, but at the same time, we didn’t feel ready to leave Canada yet, so we checked into one last Provincial Park to round out the Canadian side of our Great Lakes adventure.

Karabeka Falls is just outside of Thunder Bay. The park was woodsy and quiet. The Falls were a nice walk from our campsite.

A perfect place to relax and get ready to cross back into the US.

This has been a terrific journey, so far. Our Great Lakes loop continues! See Great Lakes: Minnesota to Ohio 2026 in my next blog post.