Highway 17 through Ontario

Ontario is a very large province in Canada. Highway 17, a road we have been taking from North Bay, Ontario to Manitoba is 1220 miles long. It is the longest provincial highway (according to Wikipedia). We traveled a major portion of that highway; picking up the highway in North Bay, after leaving Algonquin Provincial Park. It was a beautiful LONG road to travel. Images of Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Mom Lake, Baby Lake, Dad Lake, and many other lakes flashed by as we traveled across this immense province.



As we traveled toward Sault Ste Marie, Ontario inspiration struck us. Let's stay in Michigan rather than Ontario. If we were in the US we could use our cell phones without roaming charges, buy cheaper gas, and pay less for a motel. Crossing the border cost us 1 hour of time and $3.00. Each border crossing has gotten easier, the immigration folks (on both sides) see our history on the computer. Now the litany of questions may be 2 or 3 to confirm aliens have not taken over our bodies since our last crossing.

The Sault Ste Marie crossing goes over the rapids and locks between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. There is a 21 foot difference between the lakes. Early settlers put in locks to make the crossing easier. Those original locks have been replaced. This picture captured the rapids between the lakes. The water from Superior goes through a dam before becoming the rapids. I wished a boat would have gone through the locks as we inched our way across the very long bridge connecting the countries. Since we missed a boat crossing between the lakes I'm not sure how that lock system works. There were several channels that could have been locks. We did see a large boat sailing into Lake Superior as we crossed the bridge.

The crossing back into Canada did not take as long as the previous day's crossing. There was a Canadian holiday the previous day and the traffic was especially heavy. This bridge is long and old. It is only a two lane highway. It needs to be enlarged and refurbished.

It took us over 2.5 long days of travel to get from Algonquin Park to Manitoba. The Ontario speed limit on Highway 17 was only 90 km/h. We had a lot of km to travel. (No one travels the speed limit, though when the rain came down in torrents we were well below the limit.) Luckily the scenery was stunning.
Here are some pictures from Western Ontario, including a picturesque moose sign. Finally we saw another "est" billboard. Again we did not venture further to explore whether or not this was indeed the largest in the world.

It was foggy at times, especially by Lake Superior in the morning. There were so many trees that it boggled my mind. The trees were so thick that we could not see the lake behind the hill. This was a land of trees and lakes.


The name of this lake was not recorded. The lakes and surrounding areas were all this picturesque. And the lakes were numerous and all were named.


Our destination at Thunder Bay was the Sleeping Giant campground. Another beautiful provincial park in Ontario, this one was recommended to be by some folks staying at Tickle Inn in Newfoundland. This park was highly recommended to me and I would highly recommend it to others. It is toward the end of a thin peninsula that sticks out into Lake Superior. The view you are seeing here is of the sleeping giant mountain and the water is not Lake Superior, it is Lake Marie Louise at sunset. Sandy and I took a hike to catch sunset over Lake Superior not realizing to view the sunset over the waters of Lake Superior we would have had to hike for several miles. The sleeping giant mountain was much more interesting than a rosy sunset.




Here are some pictures of the Lake Superior coast.



As we departed from Sleeping Giant Park we saw two cranes in a field. They were chatting with each other. We did not recognize this type of crane. They matched the tan field and had a red head. Their sound was unique. One could easily become a birder living in this area. My photo did not do justice to the scene, I needed a stronger telephoto lens to distinguish the birds from the grasses. Their song was captured on a movie that can not be transferred to this blog site.

After Thunder Bay we still had about 500 km to travel in Ontario. The picture worth sharing was the road sign below.


At about 2:30 pm Ontario was behind us. We have arrived at one of the prairie provinces, Manitoba. Manitoba looks to be over 50% water when viewed from a map. From the road it was rich, prairie land. We never did see the extensive lakes of Manitoba. The speed limit was 100 km/h, the road was 4 straight lanes and the gas price decreased by 10 cents per liter. Leaving those beautiful lake scenes was hard though there have been compensations for that loss.