Winter Wonderland Getaway - Arrowhead Provincial Park
/Even though things are opening up, I don’t feel comfortable flying anywhere yet (one of my kids is immunocompromised, so we are extra careful… no matter how much I would love to have a beach vacation right about now!), so we looked closer to home for a getaway to escape the cabin fever that always hits in February.
My checklist for planning a winter break was: close enough to comfortably drive there in a day, lots of activities for the kids, and not super expensive. Googling word jumbles like “fun winter activities kids families Ontario Quebec” led me to read about Arrowhead Provincial Park, a not-so-well-kept secret just outside Huntsville, in the Muskokas. Seeing photos of the hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and skating trails in a gorgeous part of Ontario convinced me we had to try it!
Now, luckily for me, I start dreaming about planning trips many, many months in advance, so I was able to snag one of the very few winterized cabins in the park itself (and I have a lot of experience trying to book the best campsites the second the Ontario Parks website opens up bookings!), so we had a fantastic location within the park itself, but there are plenty of small hotels and motels within 5km of Arrowhead that are open year-round in case you miss that precious booking window. I am grateful to not have had to bring all our camping equipment there, and only had to worry about packing our clothes, food, and winter gear.
On our first full day, we did so many runs on the 1.3km skating trail through the woods. The ice was perfectly maintained, and even my five-year-old, who is still a bit nervous on skates, had so much fun! I realized the next day that the park office has skating support frames for kids to borrow- by that point she didn’t need it though! The park also rents out any winter gear you might need (so I didn’t actually need to bring all of our snowshoes!), including skates, skis and helmets.
On our second day, we skated more, and explored some of the other trails. My fitbit tells me we covered 14km in a combination of snowshoeing and hiking, with an extra 4km on skates! It was one of a handful of days I can remember that my very, very energetic children have told me that they are tired (thank goodness because I had zero energy left to do more by late afternoon!) so we headed into Huntsville for some hot chocolates at Starbucks and then picked up some pizza to bring back to the cabin. Everyone was asleep by 7:30 (something else that is unheard of normally in my family!), and the 3.5 hour car ride home the next day was calm and quiet too (I mean, there were still a few of the usual “His leg is on my siiiiiiiide” and “She’s looking out MY window” comments, but it was much quieter than usual!).
There are still at least a few more weeks of wintery weather ahead of us, if you’re looking for an active getaway that your kids will love (and be tired out by!), Arrowhead is a perfect escape.
Disclaimer: this post is not sponsored, just my thoughts about an awesome spot not too far from Ottawa .
Julia is a health educator and homeschooling Mama to three kids, and can usually be found on hiking trails or camping in the deep dark woods.
