Lady Evelyn – Smoothwater Wilderness Park

Lady Evelyn–Smoothwater: The Roof of Ontario

Tucked into the rugged heart of the Temagami region, north of Lake Temagami, Lady Evelyn–Smoothwater Provincial Park is one of those places that rewards every bit of the effort it demands. This is the Temagami area’s only wilderness-class park — roughly 72,000 hectares of clear lakes, tumbling rivers, and forest older than the country itself. There are no roads in, no campground gates, no hydro poles. You arrive by canoe or by floatplane, and once you’re there, the forces of nature run the show.

Standing on the highest ground in the province

If you want bragging rights, this is the park for them. Ishpatina Ridge rises to 693 metres above sea level — the highest point of land anywhere in Ontario. A paddle and a steep climb away sits Maple Mountain, which boasts the greatest vertical rise in the province. The Teme-Augama Anishnabai, who have called this land home for thousands of years, know Maple Mountain as Chee-bay-jing, a sacred site. From the summit, the view spills out across an unbroken sea of pine and water in every direction.

Waterfalls, old growth, and impossibly clear lakes

The Lady Evelyn River is the park’s showpiece, dropping over a chain of falls as it carves through ancient granite. Helen Falls is the tallest cascade on the river, while Centre Falls hides a natural rock waterslide for paddlers brave enough to try it. Along the shorelines stand some of the last old-growth red and white pine forests left in Ontario — trees that were already old when the region’s canoe routes were first mapped.

Then there’s the water itself. Smoothwater Lake is fringed with a white-sand beach that wouldn’t look out of place in the Caribbean, and the remote Florence and Sunnywater lakes are so clear you can see 20 metres or more straight down beneath your hull.

A genuinely wild place

This isn’t a manicured park. It protects some of the rarest habitat in Ontario, including the endangered Aurora trout — a fish found naturally in only a tiny handful of lakes on Earth. Moose, black bear, and loon share the waterways with paddlers, and because the park carries a wilderness-class designation, cans and bottles are banned outright to keep it pristine.

Lady Evelyn–Smoothwater sits at the centre of roughly 600 kilometres of interconnected canoe routes, themselves part of a 2,400-kilometre Temagami paddling network. Common access points include Mowat Landing, Gamble Lake, and launches off the Montreal River, while local outfitters offer rentals, shuttles, and fly-in service aboard classic De Havilland Beaver floatplanes.

Routes range from intermediate to genuinely advanced, so bring a good map, expect rugged portages, and remember there’s no cell service once you’re in. That, of course, is exactly the point. Few places in Ontario offer solitude this complete — or scenery this wild.