A Few Random Photos -Algonquin Area- May 2023

When we go to Algonquin, we are always on the go and we like to explore the area around/outside the Park. There are a lot of cute towns/cities within an hour or so drive and you can also access different parts of Algonquin Park away from the main Park area.

One day we drove to South Algonquin to some Back Country camping access points. We had went back country camping in this area years ago but neither of us could remember what it looked like ! The access points are for Billy Lake and Shall Lake.

  • Trail to Billy Lake was pretty muddy and wet
  • So if you are going in back country camping on Billy Lake, this is where you put your canoe/gear in at

Two spots just outside the park are favourites of ours.

  • Madawaska River May 2023
  • Just at the corner of Hwy 60 and the old hwy

We also like to go into Dwight which is a small town west of the Park. There is a restaurant there called the Boiler Room and it’s good. We have been there several times for lunch or breakfast, the breakfasts are delicious. It’s a really pretty spot and the staff are awesome, thanks Tara and Prabash ! The last time we went, Tara was our server and Prabash is the cook there and they are both really nice and it was a pleasure to chat with them both.

We like to go to Bracebridge and usually stop at Muskoka Brewery to sit outside and enjoy a glass of beer. One of my favourite breweries and they have a lovely outdoor seating area.

Sawdust City Brewery is another favourite of ours, located in Gravenhurst, maybe 70 minutes drive from the park. Great food too !

Dorset is a great little spot to visit, they have an awesome General Store called Robinsons. When I was a kid growing up my parents had a cottage just outside of Dorset on Harvey Lake. My Mom didn’t drive so my Dad took us to the cottage right after school let out and we stayed until Labour Day weekend. My Dad would drive up on weekends, (he was in the Army) and stationed at Base Borden. At that time, it was called Camp Borden, one of the larger Army bases in Canada. Anyways, I digress………….every Saturday morning Dad would take us into Dorset so Mom could get groceries or whatever she needed for the week as he went back home on Sundays. I loved going to Robinsons and I still remember I was allowed to buy one comic book and I’ll tell ya, at that time I thought it was the meanest thing to get only one comic book. It was hard to choose just one, such decisions I had back then lol.

  • Robinsons General Store, it is huge and two stories, they have everything
  • A shot I took out the window with my phone as we were driving through Dorset.

My Mom passed away when I was young and sadly my Dad sold our property right after she died. I have such fantastic memories of that place. My Uncle owned the lot on one side of us and then my Grandparents owned the next lot with a cottage on it. There were only 7 cottages on the entire lake, the lake was not huge but it wasn’t little either. We would go out in an old wooden green rowboat, which leaked, and be gone 1/2 the day. One kid would row and one would scoop water out of the bottom. No one checked on us, we grew up tough back then!

  • Our cottage from the water, probably 1972ish
  • My Mom, my dog Mitzi and Me in the old rowboat, this was maybe a year before she passed away

Memory lane, we all have memories don’t we? I think as we get older we treasure memories so much more than when we were younger. Hope you are enjoying your summer !

That’s it for now, stay safe……….

17 thoughts on “A Few Random Photos -Algonquin Area- May 2023”

  1. Thank you for sharing your cherished memories with me, Susan. God bless your mum. I have similar memories from the mid and late 1960s in Michigan’s northern lower peninsula. Cottages on a small lake that has a dam. And more. ❤️

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  4. I like all the picturesque pictures Susan, but photographs like that of your mom and you and dog are the very best. I’ve often said to myself “thank goodness for all the photos taken growing up as it is so easy to have a stroll down memory lane anytime.”

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      1. Me too Susan … the best thing I ever did was over Thanksgiving weekend 2017, I digitized all my albums. Many photos are still raw images that need to be tweaked as the Epson flatbed scanner could not accommodate the larger albums on the platen, but I enjoy looking at the pics and using them on my blog.

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      3. I saved all mine too. I had to scan them in because I had most of my family and travel photos in Hallmark photo albums which had posts that you just added more pages and post extensions. Before I got the Epson flatbed scanner, I had a printer that scanned and I went to get some photos to scan in for Facebook – as I flipped the pages over, they binding portion separated from the plastic overlay for each page – a little horrifying so I decided I had better get a dedicated scanner and scan them in. I wish I had gotten a handheld scanner as it would have done a neater job for some of the photos.

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  5. A beautiful and touching post. I am sorry you lost your mom when you were young. ❤️ I’ve always been sentimental, but I do cherish memories more, as I get older. On a sidenote… you would love Ireland!

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