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What’s better than an Ontario Provincial Park that’s open year round? Nothing, that’s what. There aren’t too many that are officially open for snowshoeing during the winter, which is why it’s extra awesome that Murphy’s Point Provincial Park near Perth is open year round!

Murphy’s Point has way more cross country skiing trails than it does snowshoeing trails, but we headed out there in February to enjoy it with our snowshoes anyways!

Two of the hiking trails that are available in the summer, the Sylvan Trail, and the Point Trail, are open for snowshoeing in the winter. In order to access these trails, snowshoers can stick to the side of groomed cross country ski trails until they reach either trail.

We’ve visited the other trails in the past. This time, we brought our baby with us, and didn’t want to try for too long of a distance. So we opted for the Beaver Pond and Silver Queen Mine Trails instead.

Disclaimer: I was slightly frustrated by the lack of effective trail marking on this trail. I’ve had a similar experience on other trails at Murphy’s Point in the winter. So don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Dogs are allowed at Murphy’s Point, even in the winter. The posted rules ask that dogs be kept on leash, and off the groomed ski tracks. Seems fair to me. We didn’t bring our dog because she’s old, and short, and she hates snow.

Getting There

Since Perth is a little bit of a road trip from Ottawa, you must first stop for coffee. Murphy’s Point Provincial Park is actually just outside of Perth, on Elm Grove Road. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.767558, -76.254965.

During the winter, things are a little different than during the summer (obviously). Normally, when you enter a provincial park there’s a big sign with the name of the park- this is the main entrance. In the winter, the main entrance to Murphy’s Point is closed. You actually have to stop in the parking lot BEFORE the main entrance (when you’re travelling south on Elm Grove Road).

The winter parking lot is roughly 0.4 kilometres before the main entrance. You’ll know you’re in the right spot because there is a little registration hut there where you can pay for a parking pass. There are also outhouses at this parking lot.

The parking pass cost us $11.25 for the day. Somehow, we hadn’t thought about this ahead of time, but we were able to dig up the exact amount regardless. Make sure you bring change! We put our money into a little envelope and dropped it into the slot available. Then, we grabbed a map of the trails. There was a larger map posted, and a bunch of smaller pamphlets available for people to take.

The Trailhead

We continued south on Elm Grove Road until it changed to Lally Road. Then, we continued south some more to get to the parking lot across from the trailhead we were looking for. First, we got ourselves a little lost by pulling into the service entrance. We quickly realized we were in the wrong place, and kept heading south.

The trailhead for the Beaver Pond and Silver Queen Mine Trails is right across from the parking for Lally Chalet. There was a sign at the side of the road announcing the parking lot for the chalet and the mine, as well as the remains of a large stone foundation to signal our arrival.

After parking, we noticed that there were outhouses here too. We strapped on our snowshoes right away because the parking lot was really icey underneath a light dusting of snow. Then, we headed over to the big sign at the back of the parking lot where there was information posted about the Lally Homestead, as well as another map.

Lanark’s Seven Wonders

Soon after, we crossed over the road to reach the trailhead. At the trailhead there was a big sign announcing the site as one of Lanark’s Seven Wonders. Without trying to, we’ve now visited a bunch of these sites! We’ve hiked Blueberry Mountain and the trails at the Mill of Kintail, and paddled into downtown Perth to Stewart Park. All of these are included in Lanark’s Seven Wonders. We really should make a point of seeing them all, since we’ve stumbled upon so many already!

Trail Marking

Unfortunately, the trails around and through this wonder weren’t very well marked. Having passed through a gate, we set out on a very wide, well-groomed path. Almost immediately, there was a sign to our left announcing that the Rideau Trail was splitting from this main trail. The sign also indicated the Silver Queen Mine Trail was further down the wide path. There was no mention of the Beaver Pond Trail whatsoever. This was the first time that the signage proved to be inaccurate- we discovered this when completing the Beaver Pond Trail brought us back to this very spot.

We stuck with the wide path (which is actually a road in the warmer months). There were a few trail markers scattered about along the groomed path we were following. These trail markers had little cross country skiiers on them, because the trail that we were following joined briefly with the Round Lake Loop that’s available for cross country skiiers. Early on, there were no hiking trail markers so we were a bit worried we were on the wrong path, but we stuck with it, seeing no other option.

We also started to notice signs with numbers on them, but we weren’t sure what they correlated to. We assumed that they related to different points of interest along the trail, but there was nothing about it on the map we had picked up. I’m not sure if there was information on one of the signs near the parking lot or trailhead- if you go, try and find out!

Horses? What are You Doing Here?

The trail remained quite wide and well-groomed as it cut its way thru the forest. After hiking for about 700 metres, we passed a sign to our left signalling for the Beaver Pond Trail. But a few hundred feet ahead of us, we thought we saw horses. Obviously, we had to go check that out.

Alas, they weren’t real horses. They were fake horse statues, attached to a wagon. Having traveled this far though, we caught a glimpse of a sign just ahead, indicating the Silver Queen Mica Mine trail was to our left, further into the forest.

The Mine

We left the wider path for a single-file trail into the trees. Only 100 metres deeper into the forest, we came across the exit/entrance to the mine. It had a sign above it with the name “side drift,” so it may have just been an area where fumes could vent from the mine. I’m really not sure, mostly since I’m not a miner.

It was neat to look inside but since it was gated off, we figured we’d stick with the trail. Unfortunately, we had to keep guessing what direction it was in because there were no trail markers in sight.

We were following footprints ahead of us and double checking our map (although it’s not a map I would depend on to keep myself out of any real trouble), and started to head uphill. We passed another opening to the mine, and when we reached the top of the hill we were rewarded with some cool old mining equipment to check out.

Between this point and when we had left the wider trail, I believe we saw one trail sign.

Hills and Ridges

Following a trail sign (huzzah!), we turned to our right and went downhill on a wider section of trail before we re-entered the forest. All of a sudden, there were trail markers everywhere. Which WAS handy, because the trail wound around quite a few areas that were fenced off because they dropped off sharply. It might have been difficult for us to find our way here if there WEREN’T trail markers, so we were happy to see them.

The Bunkhouse

After we had hiked about 1.2 kilometres, we left the forest and found ourselves in a big open field. We had spotted a long cabin before, and now we approached it. This structure was pretty cool- it was a bunkhouse for the men who used to mine the area. We read the information panel outside the building, and imagined all those guys squishing in there.

There was a set of outhouses just beyond the bunkhouse. Beyond these, we rejoined the very wide trail we had originally been on. We stuck with the groomed path until it brought us back to the horses.

The Beaver Pond Trail

On our way back, just past the horses, we followed the sign for the Beaver Pond Trail into the forest on our right. At this point, we had been hiking for 1.5 kilometres. On the Beaver Pond Trail, there were Rideau Trail markers, which are orange triangles. There were no Provincial Park markers until we actually reached the Beaver Pond.

100 metres after we had re-entered the forest, we came across the beaver pond on our right hand side. It was quite large, and made for a really lovely view.

We skirted the edge of the pond for about 300 metres before it ended and we were back in the forest. Another 300 metres had us back at the very first sign that we saw. You know, the one that said nothing at all about the Beaver Pond Trail.

Distance, Time and my Bad Attitude

Our GPS tracked this route as being 2.3 kilometres long. We were able to cover that distance in an hour, even with all the stops to check out the mine and the different things related to it. I don’t think we missed any part of this trail, so I’m not sure why there’s such a discrepancy between the distance we recorded and the trail distance indicated by the park (it’s noted as 3 kilometres on their map).

I think that if we had chosen to hike this trail in the summer, I might have liked it more. With a trail distance of less than 3 kilometres, I wasn’t overly worried about getting lost (although lots of people have found themselves lost within a mile of a trailhead, road, etc., so don’t think it can’t happen!). But I still found the poor trail marking very annoying. My feelings may have been exacerbated by the fact that we had our daughter with us. We’re still early into this hiking together thing, and I’d prefer to split my attention between enjoying being out in nature and making sure she’s comfortable and safe. Having to spend a lot of time and attention figuring out where the trail actually goes is not something I want to waste time with when she’s with us.

But, for kids who are a bit older and getting into hiking, having lots of different stuff to check out might help them enjoy it. Maybe I’m just a grouch.

Anyways, I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too (if you still want to go after reading this). Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.

Gear We Brought