Pukaskwa to Sleeping Giant (Day 4)

When we left Ken and Pukaskwa, it was almost lunchtime. We stopped in Marathon for some gas and a lunch stop before we started the day's drive. From the road, you could see the blanket of snow still in the forest and along the water. The drive was beautiful. We passed various snow-covered bays of Lake Superior (yes, I said snow-covered) and crazy rock walls of the Canadian Shield.

I am still a little in awe of just how much snow still remains here, but with daytime temperatures in the single digits (the bright sun does make it feel warmer) and the night times well below freezing, I guess it makes sense. I expected that we would meet snow on this trip, but I guess I didn't think it would be quite this soon! I'm hoping as we go west, as each passing day puts us further into spring, hopefully we'll gain a little distance from winter. Or at least slightly warmer temperatures :)

After a few hours in the car, we made it to Ouimet Canyon Provincial Nature Reserve- a stop Ken recommended. We saw a little fox on the road just before the park gate and he stopped to have a good look at us too.

The park was gated, so we walked in the 3 hilly kilometers to get to the start of the boardwalk. The sun was out in a clear sky and it was actually pretty warm, despite a strong wind. The canyon is pretty impressive (apparently Ontario's Grand Canyon) with steep walls that plunge almost 500m down into a huge valley.

Watching over the canyon is a huge Indian Head spire.

As the legend of Ouimet Canyon goes, a giant was raising a mountain when a piece broke off and struck down his beloved, killing her. Scared for the wrath of the the girl's father, the giant hid the girl's body under the rock shield. In searching for his daughter, the father used a thunderbolt to unearth her body, creating the huge canyon. He buried his daughter in the canyon and scattered rare artic flowers along the canyon floor to mark her grave. The father then turned the giant into stone and set him to stand eternal watch over his daughter's grave. Hence, the Indian Head rock spire.

We only had a little bit longer to drive to get us to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park just outside of Thunder Bay. There were a tonne of deer along the park road

and a porcupine just chillin' out.

The layout of this park is really different- you can access a bunch of day hiking trails before you even get to the Registration centre. Which was closed. Which was where the tent areas are. So, instead we set up our tent just off one of the day hike parking lots where another couple set up in their tent trailer. The evening was quite pleasantly warm, boosted by our little firepan fire (it's incredible how much warmth a little fire can give off). Luckily, the daylight seems to have started to last so much longer so quickly, which is nice when it's still chilly out. It was still light out at 9:30pm!