Day 2 - Thousand Island National Park

 Visited: 13 August 2023

Thousand Island NP is one of Canada's smallest national parks with a total area of 24.4 square km (9.4 sq mi). It is located in the beautiful 1000 island region along the St Lawrence River. The park consists of 21 islands, many smaller island called islets, several mainland properties, and a visitor center at Mallorytown, Ontario. That is where we start our adventure today.

Why is the park here? The area became extremely popular in the late 19th century, people were buying up property and islands to build their summer homes. It was the local community that saw a need to protect this precious area, so they petitioned the Canadian Government for a national park back in 1904.

Where did Parks Canada red chairs get it's start you ask? In 2011 individuals at Gros Morne NP in Newfoundland(one of my favorite NP) came up with an idea to place red adirondack chairs in lesser known area around the park. Now there are over 200 chairs in unique places across Canada. This is the Thousand Island NP set at Mallorytown Visitors Center.

The Thousand Island NP is known for it's many trials ranging from rugged and difficult to flat and easy. The trails at Jones Creek are all of those. After buying our yearly Discovery Pass at the visitors center, off we go to Jones Creek just 5 kms up the road.

We head out with lots of water, a snack just in case, 3 dogs, and ourselves. The decision was as we get to each cross trail we would judge how we were feeling. At the start the black trail is flat and well groomed.

We got to the first intersection, all was great we headed off to the left on the Bear Trail. A picturesque trail though the forest and  over rocky surfaces . All the trails are extremely well marked with colour and hiking markers.

At the intersection the trail divided again into the easy to moderate 1 km red trail or Heron loop. Everyone was great so away we went. We were rewarded with two more red chairs and a beautiful lookout.

We made are way around Turtle loop an easy trail through oak, beech, and maple forest but not before passing Jones Creek.

The final trail was Eel loop an easy .7 km hike with old pine and red oak trees.

We finish by traversing the black trail again back to the truck and a much needed rest. It was a workout but well worth it. New adventures awaits us tomorrow.