Algonquin Provincial Park: Winter Wonderland at a Yurt Stay on Mew Lake

Algonquin Provincial Park Hwy 60, P.O. Box 219 Whitney, ON K0J 2M0, Canada

Winter hiking Bat Lake Trail at Algonquin Park

Algonquin Provincial Park in winter unveils a different side of its wilderness. Covered in snow, the park offers activities like snowshoeing and skiing on its trails, as well as frozen lakes to explore.

Trip Report:

December in Toronto isn’t especially snowy so we were hoping that since we were travelling north, the colder weather would mean we’d have deep snow therefore a quintessential winter wonderland experience. Luckily, a snow storm had passed just before our trip (but it still wasn’t cold enough for one activity in particular…).

Type
   
Roofed

Toronto Drive
   
3 hours

Duration
   
2 nights

Campground
   
Mew Lake

Site
   
35

Season
      
Winter (December 2022)

Day 1: Birding

We dropped by the Visitor Centre to check out the feeding stations and it was buzzing! You didn’t even need binoculars to see the birds hop around (but do bring them if you have them). There’s a handy chart to help identify the common species in the area. Keep this in mind during your trip!

Visitor Centre bird feeding station at Algonquin Park

Chart of winter birds found around the park

We were greeted by wild turkeys and ravens were the most visible birds we saw on our trip; their stark black bodies are easy to spot against the snow and you’ll hear their calls echo throughout the park.

Hiking the Spruce Bog Boardwalk

A very quick and easy hike, the views were still breathtaking. This was a great trail to hop in and out of while waiting for check-in. *There are tons of chickadees here! They seem to be used to being fed by visitors and tend to follow hikers.

Settling In

Site #35: we didn’t know this, but this was newly built for the season, and you could tell! It was clean and incredibly cozy inside.

Yurt Reservations: (here)

Park Maps: Mew Lake campsites, winter hiking trails

Biome Yurt #35 with a sheltered outdoor picnic table. Propane barbecue for outdoor only available May to Thanksgiving only.

 The gas fireplace burns extremely hot - you have to turn it down at night because it gets quite dry and stuffy. But, the benefit is that you can warm up your drinks on top of it! A big tip: keep an eye on any soot accumulating in the fireplace. If it’s getting cloudy, it may not be properly ventilated - ours actually triggered the carbon monoxide detector but *there is a park staffer that lives on site at the Mew Lake campgrounds that was able to help us.

Day 2: Bat Lake Trail

The biome yurts have a dome at the top that gives you access to a beautiful sky view when you wake up - or stars when you go to sleep. We awoke to fresh legs ready to tackle today’s hike.

Biome yurts come with a dome-like window

This was the first truly snowy hike for some of our friends so we weren’t sure how slow we’d be and decided on a short-ish hike through Bat Lake trail which is a 5.8 km loop trail. Because we had fresh snowfall, we were able to break trail!

Frozen mushrooms — Frozen polypore mushrooms on a tree

Scenic snowy views at Bat Lake Trail, Algonquin Park

The views did not disappoint! There were so many vistas that you could spend an eternity admiring each one. Winter hiking is not as busy we were the only ones on the trail that day and were able to take our time. Solitude and serenity.

We stopped at the highest point to have a fresh coffee (as fresh as instant coffee can be anyway), and sat on a slopped bench.

Midway, we brewed coffee using a backpacking stove and titanium cups

Do you need proper hiking snow boots for this trek? I’d say you can manage, but there were some slippery slopes that our Blundstone-wearing pal was sliding over. Crampons would solve that if you still want a multi-purpose shoe.

No Skating, so Stargazing

We originally wanted to skate the rink at Mew Lake but the weather had just recently turned cold so it hadn’t had time to freeze. We eagerly checked each night but no dice! So we ended the night with a fire and some light twinkling of a dark sky. Inside, we played a few rounds of card games with warm drinks spiked with sickeningly sweet liquor.

Nighttime views at the yurt with a campfire, Mew Lake

Day 3: Home

Check out is at 10:00am so we packed our things, dropped off any trash at the depot and made our way back to Toronto.

Final Thoughts

How I would describe this trip: too short! I felt like we didn’t even scrape the tip of what we could do; there feels like infinitely more trails to hike and so many adventures to be had. The roofed accomodations at Mew Lake are extremely popular and for good reason! Sometimes you can get bookings on weekdays, which feels like the best time to go. I would make a yurt trip at Algonquin Park a yearly tradition, that’s how much I loved it.

For our camping gear list, click here.

Read other winter trips at another yurt at Pinery, a cabin at Arrowhead or more.