Larose Forest offers so many options for getting outdoors no matter what time of year it is. Seriously. We’re talking hiking, horseback riding, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, DOG SLEDDING?! And the trail network there seems to be developing constantly.

Larose Forest is starting to become more popular for it’s mountain and fatbiking trails, although we haven’t been lucky enough to try those out yet.

For us, snowshoeing in Larose Forest is starting to be a New Year’s Day tradition. We were out this past New Year’s Day despite the extreme cold warning. We had a fantastic walk through the woods, and didn’t see a single other person the whole time we were out.

There are two trails in Larose forest that are designated for snowshoeing in the winter. The shorter trail starts at Parking Lot 7, while the longer trail starts at Parking Lot 4. Because of the cold, we opted for the shorter trail this year. Both the snowshoe trails are also open to fatbikes.

Getting There

Larose Forest is a short drive East of Ottawa. It’s a fantastic destination for those living in that end of the city, or even south of the city. You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.373588, -75.240846.

Any time that we’ve visited Larose Forest, we’ve never had trouble finding a spot. P7 is made up of parking spots right along the road, and by my guess you could park at least fifty cars there. P7 is on Indian Creek Road, and there was a big sign on the east side of the road signalling that we had arrived.

There’s a garbage can and trail map at the trailhead, but no outhouse. Technically, there are two trailheads, one on either side of the road.

Trail Heads

We wanted to complete the loop clockwise, so we started at the trail head on the east side of the road. It’s really easy to tell the two trail heads apart because the one on the west side of the road has gigantic flags that say “Larose Forest,” whereas the trail head on the east side is only marked by a small trail sign, and has the map beside it. It’s also right next to the sign for the parking lot.

We were planning to complete the longest loop possible. Going clockwise, that meant we were going to have to turn left at every split in the trail. If we had chosen to go counter-clockwise, the opposite would have been true and we would have gone right at every split to make the trip longer.

The Route

The first section of this trail was easy hiking that began through a mixed forest with a few gently rolling hills thrown in to keep it interesting. The forest began to change slightly as we hiked along, becoming more uniform in its appearance. I suspect this is due to the forest being “man-made,” but I actually like hiking through some of the more uniform sections as well because it does neat things with the light.

After hiking for just over a kilometre, we left the forest to cross over Chemin Clarence Cambridge. This road was open to vehicles, so we were careful about crossing. The trail resumed across the road, slightly to our right.

After hiking one more kilometre, we arrived at Grant Road. Grant Cemetery is set back from the road here, and is a neat place to visit. There are panels up that discuss the history of the area, and while I’ve never entered the cemetery myself, it’s easy to see that it’s well taken care of and still tended to.

We crossed over Grant road to get back on the trail, which was right in front of us. Grant Road appeared to be open to vehicles, and also had a snowmobile track running down the side of it. We were extra careful crossing this one!

The First Left Turn

After snowshoeing for a total of 2.5 kilometres, we reached the first point on the trail where we needed to choose between left or right. It was not marked at this point, but the tracks in the snow were very clear. I would like to think that even without snow we would have known to turn left here. The way the trail ran, if we had kept walking straight we would have walked into the brush. I think this would be a good spot for a trail marker. Maybe I should volunteer to put some up… Okay, I just asked if they need any volunteers and they said that their goal is to have all splits marked by the end of the month. Moving on.

We reached the next split in the trail (there was a marker here) after hiking for 3.5 kilometres. Turning left brought us down into a little valley, where we crossed a bridge over a small stream. We could see the bridge from the split in the trail so if you aren’t sure here, keep that in mind.

At the 3.8 kilometre mark we crossed back over the first road we had reached. A lot of the trees on this section of the trail had been marked for logging, so this wasn’t the most beautiful part of our day. But we got through it quickly enough.

In fact, we only traveled another .6 kilometres before we reached a wide logging road, where we turned (you guessed it) left. There was a map at this point on the trail, which was helpful. We traveled down the wide road for roughly 200 metres before taking the trail right. There was a blue arrow at the end of the road that showed us the way.

The next split in the trail came along at the 4.8 kilometre mark. Again, there were no trail markers here. To our right was a sign with a little snowshoer and fatbiker.

Nearing the End of the Trail

The following section of the trail seemed like it would be really fun for fatbiking. The trail began to gain and lose a little more elevation, and there were a few hills with steep little drop offs.

We then came to part of the trail that had us hiking alongside a ridge. It looked over a valley with the tiniest creek at the bottom. When we had hiked for 5.3 kilometres, there was one last split in the trail. It was not marked at all. We only noticed that it was a split because there were tracks heading right.

Again, we stayed left and followed the trail until it began to run parallel to the road and bring us back to where we had parked. We left the trail right beside the giant signs for Larose Forest. These signs were on either side of a wide logging road, and there was a notice up about that particular section of the trail being closed. So, if you visit Larose Forest (do it!) and want to try the trail counter-clockwise but notice the same signs, just take the smaller trail to the right of the big signs.

Different Route Options

This trail can be traveled in a lot of ways. If I were to hike it again, I might choose to go counter-clockwise so that I could have all the decision making out of the way early. I really like to settle into the experience of hiking and not have to think too much about which direction to turn. Traveling counter-clockwise would let me finish this way.

But, if I were biking or fatbiking this route, I might be inclined to do it clockwise, because the more challenging (and fun) section would come closer to the end this way.

On this particular day, we had chosen to turn left at every junction we could, to do the full loop. If you wanted to do the loop clockwise but make it a little shorter, you could choose to go right. If you made this choice twice, you could make the entire length of the loop much shorter. By my estimate, you would cut off 1.2 kilometres, so the whole route would only be 5.34 kilometres.

In order to shorten the route if you were travelling counter-clockwise, you would start out on the old logging road (instead of the trail beside it), and choose to make left turns when presented with the opportunity.

Getting Home

We were able to complete this route in exactly two hours. We weren’t trying to move super-fast, but we kept up a reasonable pace because of the cold.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Gear We Brought

Gear We Forgot