One of the best things about 1000 Islands National Park is how many hiking trails there are to choose from! The beaches, biking, and paddling are pretty good too, but I digress.

We headed down to 1000 Islands recently, thinking we would hike the trails at Jones Creek. We had already checked out the Wolf and Hawk Loop Trails, and wanted to see what some of the others were like.

Being the brilliant parents that we are (ha!), we figured we’d hang out at home for a bit, and then when our daughter was ready for her second nap, we’d hit the road. So we did, and we got there. And she slept. And slept, and slept some more. By the time she woke up, we were wary of taking on too long of a hike. We also wanted to take our time and enjoy it.

So we decided that instead, we’d head over to the Mallorytown Landing. There’s a set of shorter trails there- the Smoky Fire Trail and the Six Nations Trail. As a bonus, the Mallorytown Landing turned out to be a great spot to sit and look out over the St. Lawrence River.

Getting There

Depending where you are in Ottawa, 1000 Islands National Park is just over an hour away. In my books, that makes it a day trip!

The Visitor’s Centre for the park is at the Mallorytown Landing. So even if you don’t intend to hike there, it’s still a great spot to visit and get all the info about what there is to do in the area.

We took the 416 out to the 401, and were there in no time! You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.454305, -75.858795.

When we went, the visitor’s centre was closed. They don’t open up until the May long weekend.

At the centre, there was a big playground, and space to rest, relax, and eat. There were beautiful views over the river, which we stopped to enjoy on the way back.

There were also washrooms (although they were closed too), and tons of parking available. We spotted a bike repair station as well.

Just a few hundred metres from the centre, there was a boat launch, and oTENTiks that could be rented from Parks Canada.

I’ve never been inside an oTENTik, but they look pretty snazzy from the outside! The sites here were pretty close together, but they also looked out over the water. Sometimes it’s worth it to trade proximity for stunning views while you sit around the campfire.

The Trailhead

We didn’t really notice a trailhead, or any signs pointing us in the right direction near the Visitor’s Centre. But looking at the map, we knew we had to follow the shoreline for a bit, so we headed in the direction of the boat launch.

There was also a “shortcut” path that we could have taken. It would have had us leaving from the parking lot, crossing the 1000 Islands Parkway immediately, and joining the trail on the other side. Since the trail was already short to begin with, we decided to skip the shortcut.

The path we were following was about a metre wide, flat, and made of gravel. Soon after passing the boat launch, we reached the oTENTiks. The first site we came across was 3A. There was a group of five cabins here in total (3A through 3E). In this area, we came across a sign indicating that we were on the “Mallorytown Landing Trail.” It wasn’t the name that was on the map, but we figured we were on the right track anyways.

After stopping quickly at the composting toilet (fancy name for an outhouse!) behind the oTENTiks, we were on our way.

The Smoky Fire Trail

The trail we were following wound behind the oTENTiks. We walked briefly through the forest before reaching the 1000 Islands Parkway, which we needed to cross to stay on the trail.

There were trail markers posted along the trail- the classic blue and white hiking guy that we see so often in the provincial parks. In this case though, they matched the color of the trail on the maps (just like at Jones Creek).

On the other side of the road, there was a trail sign right beside the trail. It helped us know exactly where the path was headed. Here, it seemed that a gravel pathway had been attempted, but had been reclaimed by nature (yeah!) and was covered in grass.

Trail markers led us parallel to the road, with shrubs to our left and a big open field to our right. The path then became more established again, and remained wide enough for us to walk side by side. We passed an old yellow house that seemed to be some sort of maintenance centre for Parks Canada.

Reaching the Shortcut

After hiking .6 kilometres, we crossed over the “shortcut” path, which was much wider, and looked like an old logging road. So, taking that path would have shaved off just over half a kilometre (I guess a whole kilometre if you took it on the way back too!).

A hundred metres later, the trail finally jogged away from the road, and we went deeper into the forest. We soon began to see cattails to our left, and after hiking a kilometre we crossed a short bridge over a small creek. The trail began to head uphill after the bridge, and was rockier, because water travelling downhill had brought the rocks tumbling along with it. It also thinned out, and we found ourselves walking single file.

The Six Nations Trail

I’m assuming that the Six Nations Trail is named in recognition of the fact that 1000 Islands National Park is on Iroquois territory. I have no idea how the Smoky Fire Trail got its name!

In order to leave the Smoky Fire Trail and get on the Six Nations Trail, we had to cross another road. We reached it after hiking 1.2 kilometres. Again, there was a trail sign where we needed to re-enter the forest. We knew that at some point we’d have to walk along the road for a bit, but we decided to save that for the return. We entered the forest, and the trail markers turned to yellow. This trail also seemed slightly less traveled, although still easy to follow.

We hiked up a slight incline to a grassy plateau, and then past a huge rock face on our left hand side. A skinny little footbridge brought us over a swampier section of the forest.

There was another “shortcut” on the Six Nations Trail, and we reached the split for it after hiking 1.6 kilometres. The trail for the shortcut cut through the woods to our right. There was a posted sign at the junction announcing that the split was official. We decided to take the long way home, and kept straight to stick with our original path.

So Many Boardwalks!

There was tons of deadfall down throughout the forest, and on this section of the trail, things were much wetter. We found ourselves crossing three separate boardwalks before heading uphill to look back over the third.

There was a fourth boardwalk just before we reached the other side of the “shortcut” at 2.2 kilometres. So, taking the shortcut would have shaved 600 metres off the trail.

We walked down a set of stairs built into the forest floor, and reached the road right after. We knew we had to turn to our right on the road to get back to the Smoky Fire Trail. But there were also blue trail markers on the trees by the side of the road, pointing us in the right direction.

Before starting the hike, I was a bit worried that the road would be really busy like the Parkway is. But it turned out to be a wide dirt road, and we saw no traffic at all while we walked along the side of it.

After hiking a total of 2.5 kilometres, we re-entered the forest to our left, heading back to where we had come from.

After the Hike

We stopped on the way back to get an up close looks with some frogs in the swamp, but otherwise returned to the trailhead fairly quickly.

After returning to the Visitor’s Centre, we decided to walk behind it, towards the St. Lawrence River, and “Contemplation Rock.” We’re so glad that we did because the view over the river was absolutely stunning. What a perfect spot! The open rock face was right next to the river, and we sat together at the picnic table there, enjoying the peacefulness of the water. Our daughter was slightly less appreciative, and mostly enjoyed playing with her foot.

Thoughts on This Trail

Completing the entire length of this trail, we hiked 3.6 kilometres in total. We were able to cover that distance in an hour and fifteen minutes, because it was fairly easy hiking.

If you wanted to make this trail shorter, you could take one or both of the shortcuts provided. Taking them both (and then taking the first one again on the way back) would make it shorter by just over a kilometre and a half.

This trail is a really great one for families who are looking for a quick walk in the woods. Or, for people who aren’t quite sure how long their kids will last on a hike, and want an option to bail out early (hello, shortcuts!).

Really, with its proximity to the water at Mallorytown Landing, it’s a great trail for anyone who might be spending part of the day there.

The hiking at Mallorytown isn’t very strenuous. But the trail IS varied enough that decent footwear should be worn (i.e. minimally running shoes, versus flip flops- we wore our hiking boots). There are maps available at the visitor’s centre. It’s always a good idea to bring a hard copy of a map along with you!

We had such a lovely day at the Mallorytown Landing, and can picture ourselves coming back when our daughter is older too.

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

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

*We originally packed for a longer hike!