Looking for the perfect place to spend the day, Bon Echo has it all; camping, soaring rock formations, hiking trails, swimming and is extremely pet friendly! Bon Echo is open from May to October and is one of Ontario’s most popular Provincial Parks.
We arrived at the park on a stunning fall morning and parked at the visitor center parking lot. We headed towards the Upper Mazinaw Lake for a breathtaking view of Mazinaw Rock. One of the best views of this 100 m tall and 1.5 km long rock formation is from the cove on the north west side of The Narrows.
I wish we had our canoe with us to check out the pictographs, but that will have to be another trip. We headed back towards the main road and then followed the trail to The Narrows and the gorgeous lookout. On this side of the lake, the water is relatively shallow, and we could get a closer look at the soaring rock formation. I say relatively shallow, as this is the 7th deepest lake in Ontario, reaching 145 m (476 ft) deep.
Our dog, Nala, was pretty excited to get into the water, so we figured we better head towards the pet swimming area. We walked along a path near the Lower Mazinaw Lake shoreline and past the canoe rental area. The trees were absolutely beautiful. We continued to follow the road past the main beach and towards the footbridge.
As we got to the end of the foot bridge I was pleasantly surprised to see we were in the off leash pet area already.
Off Leash Hiking
We followed the off leash trail over to the pet swim area, which was much larger than I anticipated from the map. Nala could run out pretty far before she had to start swimming. The off leash area also extended well past the beach to include a nice grass area, the perfect place to play fetch with our dog.
Dog Friendly Pet Beach
Looking to do a bit of hiking while we were here, we headed south from the pet beach towards the Pet Exercise Trail. The park map only indicated the general direction of the trail, which is located near a parking lot just past the yurts about 600 m south of the pet swimming area.
The Pet Exercise trail is a leash free 1.4 km loop through the forest. Look for the signs on the west side of the road for the trail head.
This is an easy well marked trail with gentle hills and some beautiful rock formations. Our puppy absolutely loved running through the leaves along the trail.
I completely understand why Bon Echo is one of Eastern Ontario’s most popular Provincial Parks. It well exceeded my expectations with a pet friendly beach, hiking trails and breathtaking views. It’s definitely on my list of places to come back and visit! Next time we’ll be checking out the lake, pictographs and Cliff Top Trail. Can’t wait to come back and visit.
