Staff Pick
Road Trip Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa – Wild Lake Superior
Sault Ste. Marie
Wawa
230
km
3h
drive
Summer
season
The Itinerary
This is the most dramatic single stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway in Ontario. North of Sault Ste. Marie, Highway 17 leaves the farmland behind entirely and climbs onto the Precambrian rock of the Lake Superior shore, running about 230 km to Wawa with the largest freshwater lake on earth by surface area on one side and granite hills on the other. The road was not completed until 1960, and the engineering shows in the way it climbs, curves and drops between headlands.
Lake Superior Provincial Park occupies much of the middle of the route and is the reason to allow a full day rather than three hours. The Agawa Rock Pictographs are reached by a short but genuinely rough trail down to a sloping ledge at the waterline, where ochre paintings including the horned lynx Mishipeshu were made by Ojibwe artists; the ledge is closed when the lake is rough, and that happens often. Old Woman Bay opens between a pebble beach and a 200 m cliff face. Sand River and Katherine Cove are the easy roadside stops.
Wawa marks the northern end, guarded by an 8.5 m steel goose erected in 1960 to draw travellers off the new highway. Magpie High Falls, a few minutes from the village, drops about 23 m across a wide rock lip. Fuel and services are sparse north of the park, so fill the tank at Wawa before continuing. The lake keeps this coast cold well into June, and snow can close sections in winter.
Lake Superior Provincial Park occupies much of the middle of the route and is the reason to allow a full day rather than three hours. The Agawa Rock Pictographs are reached by a short but genuinely rough trail down to a sloping ledge at the waterline, where ochre paintings including the horned lynx Mishipeshu were made by Ojibwe artists; the ledge is closed when the lake is rough, and that happens often. Old Woman Bay opens between a pebble beach and a 200 m cliff face. Sand River and Katherine Cove are the easy roadside stops.
Wawa marks the northern end, guarded by an 8.5 m steel goose erected in 1960 to draw travellers off the new highway. Magpie High Falls, a few minutes from the village, drops about 23 m across a wide rock lip. Fuel and services are sparse north of the park, so fill the tank at Wawa before continuing. The lake keeps this coast cold well into June, and snow can close sections in winter.
Points of Interest
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✦
Agawa PictographsOjibwe rock paintings on a cliff face above Lake Superior.
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✦
Old Woman BayPebble beach beneath a landmark cliff, in Lake Superior Provincial Park.
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✦
Magpie High FallsA 23 m waterfall 10 minutes from Wawa.
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✦
Wawa GooseThe 8.5 m statue that has become a Trans-Canada Highway landmark.
Protected areas along the route
🌿
Aggregate Areas
General Use Area
🌿
MAGPIE RIVER TERRACES CONSERVATION RESERVE
Conservation Reserve
🌿
MICHIPICOTEN PROVINCIAL PARK (CULTURAL HERITAGE CLASS)
Provincial Park
🌿
SOUTH MICHIPICOTEN RIVER-SUPERIOR SHORELINE CONSERVATION RESERVE
Conservation Reserve
🌿
Urban Areas
General Use Area
🌿
South Michipicoten River-Superior Shoreline Forest Reserve
Forest Reserve
🌿
Highway 17- Montreal River Harbour
General Use Area
🌿
LAKE SUPERIOR PROVINCIAL PARK (NATURAL ENVIRONMENT CLASS)
Provincial Park
🌿
Agawa Bay Recreational Fishing
General Use Area
🌿
MONTREAL RIVER PROVINCIAL PARK (NATURE RESERVE CLASS)
Provincial Park
🌿
GOULAIS RIVER BEACH RIDGES CONSERVATION RESERVE
Conservation Reserve
🌿
Goulais
General Use Area
Take this route offline
Cell coverage thins out fast once you leave Sault Ste. Marie. Export the map as a geo-referenced PDF before you go and open it in BorealMaps — your GPS position shows on the map with no signal at all.
Try PDF Export How geo-referenced PDF maps workPractical info
- Departure Sault Ste. Marie
- Destination Wawa
- Distance 230 km
- Duration 3h
- Category Medium (100–250 km)
- Best season Summer
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