Quick Facts:

• AllTrails link: Addington Lookout and Mid-March-Lodge-Fern Loop.
• Difficulty: moderate (some muddy and mildly hazardous sections)
• Traffic: quite busy on weekends
• Facilities: pit toilet, picnic tables
• View: interesting marsh views. The view at the Addington Lookout was partially obstructed by trees.
• Overall score: 6/10

Trip Report: February 2021

On this bright February weekend, we visited the Minnekhada Regional Park. It’s a very quiet and lush park, featuring forests, marshes, and some view points on rocky outcrops.

We followed this AllTrails route from the Minnekhada Lodge entrance to the Addington Lookout, then we roughly followed this route (minus the Low Knoll) to circle around the Lower Marsh to come back to our staring point.

The Fern Trail was very easy, mostly flat and surfaced with loose gravel. There were some steep sections though, so it’s not stroller friendly.

The path to the Addington Lookout was significantly more difficult, with very muddy sections and obstacles such as roots and rocks. There were sections of it where we were actually walking in shallow flowing water! We remarked that if this would probably have been covered with stairs or boards if they had more funding.

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The view at the lookout was partially obstructed by trees, so it wasn’t as satisfying as I have hoped.

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We continued on Fern Trail and crossed the Mid-Marsh Trail. It was more difficult than we expected, with several rock piles to climb over instead of just a continuation of the flat gravel path. Overall, this loop and the section to the Addington Lookout definitely make this hike a moderate difficulty for families with young kids. I think our 3 year old would have some trouble navigating these hazards.

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The views at the marshes were great though! I’m glad we didn’t miss out on exploring these marshes.

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Facilities

Surprisingly for a Regional Park, there were only outhouses in this park. No source of drinking water to fill up your bottles. There are some picnic tables at the Lodge entrance though.

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Parking

We followed my GPS and arrived at the Minnekhada Lodge entrance, which turns out to be much smaller than the Quarry Road entrance with only a little over a dozen parking spots. Luckily, another family was hiking out so we had a spot. I would recommend going to the Quarry Road entrance instead.

The road that lead to the park entrance was interesting too. It was single lane, so we had to maneuver carefully to let some cars through.