Opasquia Provincial Park

Ontario Wilderness Park Of About 4,730 Square Kilometres On The Manitoba Border In The Far North West; No Roads, No Facilities, No Maintained Routes, And Among The Least Visited Parks In The Province · Pikangikum, Ontario

Opasquia is about four thousand seven hundred and thirty square kilometres of boreal forest, lake and river on the Manitoba border in the far north-west of Ontario, and it is ONE OF THE LEAST-VISITED PARKS IN THE PROVINCE - a place where the annual count of recreational parties is genuinely small. There are NO ROADS, NO FACILITIES, NO MAINTAINED PORTAGES AND NO MARKED ROUTES: the park was created in 1983 to protect a large intact block of the Hudson Bay lowland transition, and protection here has meant leaving it alone rather than developing it. What is there is Shield and muskeg, a great deal of water, woodland caribou, and fishing that fly-in lodges in the surrounding country are built on. This is the traditional territory of Pikangikum and other Anishinaabe communities. Access is by float plane only, from Red Lake or Pikangikum, and route-finding is entirely on the visitor.

North-western Ontario on the Manitoba border, Kenora District, Pikangikum, Ontario, Canada

NO GATE, NO VISITOR CENTRE, NO FACILITIES AND NO STAFF. The season is ROUGHLY LATE JUNE TO EARLY SEPTEMBER, bounded by ice-out and freeze-up. ACCESS IS BY FLOAT PLANE ONLY, from Red Lake or Pikangikum - THERE ARE NO ROADS OF ANY KIND into or near the park. INTERIOR CAMPING REQUIRES AN ONTARIO PARKS BACKCOUNTRY PERMIT obtained in advance, and there is NO QUOTA because there is no demand. THERE ARE NO MAINTAINED PORTAGES AND NO MARKED ROUTES - whatever route you paddle you will be finding and in places cutting yourself, and published information is very thin. FOREST FIRE CLOSURES ARE COMMON in this part of the boreal and are absolute. This is Anishinaabe territory; contact the relevant First Nation. No cell coverage.

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