Lake Superior Circle Tour Day 6 - Thunder Bay to Terrace Bay

Driving out of Thunder Bay I caught one final glimpse of the Sleeping Giant and this quick shot from the car with my phone turns out to be my favourite.  I also took a lot of shots of my favourite sight on this trip - birch forests, many from the car.

Sleeping Giant

Our first stop was going to be Ouimet Canyon, but when we got there, the park was closed.  They were scheduled to open the day before but somehow it was postponed because of snow still in some areas.  We hiked uphill for a bit and then decided to turn back.  This will have to wait for another trip. 

This marsh is just beside the parking lot at the bottom of the drive to Ouimet Canyon

We had better luck at our second destination, Eagle Canyon.  It is open and while it is privately run and we had to pay a hefty admission, it was a good hike with lots of photo ops.  Apart from the awesome rocks along the canyon walls, there are two suspension bridges, one purportedly the longest in Canada plus the longest zipline.  We walked across on one and came back on the other one then it was a multi-step descent into the floor of the canyon.  It's a good thing the walk back to the parking lot is not as steep and only half the elevation.  

Eagle Canyon

One of two suspension bridges

This is the view from the middle of one of the bridges

You can see the steps going down to the canyon floor on the right

Love the multi-coloured canyon walls and the trees growing out of rocks!

And here's a lone birch on the rocks

This is the view from the canyon floor

Another of my favourite views of the birches

I was thrilled to be able to actually walk in a birch forest on the Eagle Canyon grounds and be surrounded by birches

We proceeded south towards Terrace Bay and stopped at the Nipigon Visitor Centre to admire the new bridge and climb the observation tower to see the Nipigon River, a view made famous by paintings of A.Y. Jackson.

This is the view of the Nipigon River and the bridge from the top of the tower

Views that have been painted by the Group of Seven are marked by artist's easel and chair.  We came across three of these on our trip.

Our last stop of the day before overnighting in Terrace Bay is the impressive Aguasabon Falls and gorge which feeds into Lake Superior.  

Terrace Bay is very small and the lonely plaza is mostly empty.  The only restaurant open is Wah's Chinese Canadian Restaurant, takeout only because of Covid.  But the menu includes everything from Cantonese fried noodles to hamburgers and fries so it was quite busy.  My Chicken with mixed vegetables takeout turned out to be excellent - Chicken was tender and I had my first taste of Chinese veggies in a week, and lots of it!