This is the most spontaneous adventure I have ever been on. Buckle up, it’s a good one….
The night before this adventure, my friend Laura and I decided this is where we were going. We woke up at 3am, and we’re on our way at 3:30am. We had a 5hr drive ahead of us!
We made a few coffee stops, and we also stopped at a random lake to watch the sunrise for a little bit. It was really beautiful!
We arrived to our first destination of the day, Eagles Nest Lookout. I’ve seen this lookout all over Instagram, and I had a read a few blogs about it but I hadn’t researched it in months! I forgot anything I ever learned about parking and what not, so thankfully it was easy to navigate.
We used AllTrails for directions to parking lot and for the Eagles Nest Lookout trail loop. We parked at Parking Lot 1 – and I highly recommend parking here! It’s a smaller parking lot, but entering the trail here is way easier. If starting at Parking Lot 2, the hike up is very steep and challenging.
The trail from parking lot 1 begins up an old logging road. It’s a great walk, and once you get to the rest of the trail it definitely requires sturdy footwear. There were lots of trail blazes that were easy to navigate, and before we knew it we could already see amazing views.
A good way to describe this trail is to say it’s a mix of Centennial Ridges (in Algonquin) and Granite Ridge (in Killarney). The massive lookouts are what reminded me of Algonquin, and the plants and trail is what reminded me of Killarney.
After a few stop of admirations along the way, we made it! And, we had the entire place to ourselves for the first 30mins we were there. It was incredible! The view actually made me emotional. No photos I had seen of it did this location any justice.
After some amazing views, many photos, snacks, and water, we decided to head back to our car instead of doing the full Manitou mountain trail network.
When we got to the car, we drove to the parking lot that is just beside Calabogie Lake and took the trail to Red Arrow Lookout and then to the top of the mountain.
This trail was one of the hardest I had ever done – mainly because of the heat wave and all of the mosquitos. It was also very steep, overall just incredibly challenging but worthwhile. It felt like a huge accomplishment once we reached the top.
After all of our hiking for the day, we grabbed some local grub and found a spot to rent a tandem kayak! It was a great end to an amazing day.
Tips for hiking Eagles Nest Lookout:
- Wear sturdy footwear
- Stay on marked trails
- Avoid getting too close to cliff edges
- Bring insect repellent
- Park at Parking lot 1 and start your hike there
- Leave time to enjoy the many lookouts
I’m including this just because…during our 5hr drive home, I won two concert tickets to mine and Laura’s favourite band! The concert was also amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend full of MANY surprises.
Fun fact: I saw this band for the first time in 2010 in the same city. I’ve seen them many times since, but this one was the most memorable.
Keep on trekking,
Kate 🥾🌲
yourmatiekatie 