Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park

Crown land. Thus meaning free! However there are talks that it will be more regulated in the near future. Being free often times means a lot of things are left behind. There is a lot of traffic of people close to the parking, but once you get past that you are virtually alone. Moderate-advance trails as there is a bit of bush wacking, traversing marshes and logs, and rock scrambles. Certain areas aren't well marked so it is important to keep your eyes open. Lots of bugs in the spring time!

I read online that the trail wasn’t marked very well, which I was worried about my first time. But I found it to be very clear and obvious. If I got off track, it was easy to find again and follow on my map. I usually download a map so I can follow a trail offline. The scenery is a lot more diverse than other parks I’ve been to and the hikers I ran into were very friendly.I brought my dog with me and, although she’s supposed to be leashed the whole time, there were spots I didn’t feel it would be safe to do so. For example (see my photo), when we were going up and down rocks or steep technical parts. I had to carry her down (and up on the way back) because she was too scared to do it alone. It worked out fine, but that’s just a head’s up for owners whose dogs might not be as adventurous.The scenery took my breath away. Definitely recommend.

Great place for backpacking. The wilderness section of the Ganaraska trail runs through here with accesses on both the west and east side of the park. It's non-operating, so there are no park facilities or entry fees/permits. It takes a bit of internet sleuthing to find the accesses and so is (or was) relatively unknown to the masses making it much quieter than other parks like Algonquin.The Ganaraska and side trails are not maintained too well in some areas of the park and completely disappear at times (memories of getting lost near the Hiker's Graveyard section). Same with the blazes, although in other areas you might be able to see up to 10 blazes from one spot. The park is crisscrossed with ATV and game trails and it can be easy to accidentally wander down these instead of your intended trail.It's also not uncommon to cross paths with ATVs, dirtbikes, hunters, etc and their respective seasons.Ultimately, it's a great resource and fine alternative to the busier parks.

Awesome time. It's close to the GTA and feels every bit of being up north. The trail is rugged and fairly well marked but a few spots had us questioning our direction. I would expect the bugs to be extreme in the spring/summer as you hike past many streams, bogs, and lakes.

A great hike but chose the wrong day. With not much in the way of shade, the heat was oppressive to say the least. Loads of mosquitoes and black flies. My only complaint about the trail itself is that the blazers (trail markers) can be difficult to find with a simple glance, very easy to find yourself off trail. I will be back to explore more of the park come cooler weather.

Great unmanaged park with a range of trails for all levels. Lots of river and rapids to observe and fish in. A great day out or pick one of the mark camping sites to stay a day or two! Bring good footwear.

Took the weekend to go portaging through the Wildlands. Started our journey from head lake (access point 1, furthest north) and paddled towards Fishhog lake. We paddled in headwinds on head lake, but still managed to get across in about half an hour. Once we were in Fishhog lake, we went right and a did a series of portages (90, 290, 5, 70, 5, 90), with the 290m portage being the steepest and rockiest, but still manageable. We were lucky that the water level was high, and managed to omit a couple of the portages, but the river itself is very overgrown and shrubby. We ended up camping on Redboat lake, which was very peaceful and easy access.Day two, we wanted to portage up to Scrabble lake through Digby Creek, only to be met by numerous logs and beaver dams that blocked the way. We made it up 1/3 of the way, but with the amount of brush and dams we deemed it wasn't worth the many short portages. There is potentially another route around and into Clear Lake, but by the time we got back it was too late in the day. The second night we heard a few hunters on ATVs, and a couple packs of wolves that were howling at night.The third day we went back the same way we came, and met high winds on head lake. It took us approximately an hour to get back fighting the waves.Overall, it was a beautiful fall trip! Shame that the portage routes were overgrown, but I was using a 2013 avenza map for reference (I was expecting a bit of outdated routes). It was challenging, but definitely worth the peace and quiet.

A great place to camp! We started at Head Lake and ran the head river, ending the trip at Monck Rd. We paid to park at the Head Lake Trailer Park and used their dock as a launch. The water levels were fairly low that late in the season but still runnable. Campsite #78 and #79 are really nice, #85 is fairly rough. There's also a nice unofficial camp site just after smudge creek on the river right side. We stayed here on our first night. You'll encounter 11x rapids of various size. some short portages are required. The last 1/4 of the trip was tough, lots of wood down and the river bottom becomes soft.

Hiked Graveyard trail section and camped. The trail blazes are well marked in both direction. Be prepared to walk across beaver damsThere are plenty of places to pitch a tent with established fire pits. We saw turtles, hatched turtle eggs, deer, frogs, chipmunks, an otter and lots of bugs. There are ticks. We saw at least one bear skat. We hung our food PCT style and had no problems.

A mostly unknown gem, but not for the faint of heart. We went in late October and had an entire lake to ourselves. Cold, wet but beautiful with no bugs that time of year.The most difficult part of the trip was getting to the lake with the campsite. There was one short but steep portage (steep out and in), but the most difficult part was crossing Head Lake to get to the river that lead to the portage. Both on our way into the park, and on our way out, we had strong winds and swells that caused us to take indirect routes to prevent capsizing the canoe. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the landing.The park is very swampy. Lots of beaver dams and reedy shallows. It would be very, very buggy in the summer. We had to wear orange vests due to extensive hunting in the area.We fished and caught large mouth bass.The park is currently unmanaged - mostly not well maintained - and free to camp. There was plenty of dead wood to scavenge for firewood.Our campsite was large and had great views of the lake on three sides. There was a good thunderbox too.I would go back again, but not in bug season. And I may explore a different part of the park. More portages may be easier than crossing Head Lake on windy days!