Outdoors: Retrace Tom Thomson’s canvas

The largest waterfalls in the Lake Huron Watershed is out of the way but well worth the journey to hike and explore. The falls drop 33 metres (108 feet) to the gorge below. There are approximately 25 different chutes in the granite the water flows through.

Although Aubrey Falls Provincial Park is far to get to, the scenic views are stunning from either of the three directions. Aubrey Falls is an area of Pre-Cambrian bedrock with Jack Pine and Birch trees.

The park itself is very small with minimal amenities. It is considered a non-operating park. There are washrooms and a few picnic tables. The hiking trail in to the falls is 0.8 km and is an easy walk on a wide well kept trail to the bridge. Be sure to sign the park book on the trail in!

Once you get past the bridge, the trail is a little more rugged but easily passable. This trail leads to a beautiful scenic overlook of the falls to the left and a little further up to the right the Brookfield Dam built in 1971.

Just before the walking bridge, if you like to climb the rocks, you can venture right and climb up the right side of the falls for an up close and personal view of the falls.

Tom Thomson, one of the Group of Seven Artists influencers, toured Aubrey Falls in 1912 in the Algoma Region. From Moments of Algoma — Tom Thomson paddled the Mississagi River in an epic two-month trip in the summer of 1912, six years before the later Group of Seven began their famous “box-car excursion” to Algoma.

As you travel to and from Aubrey Falls on Highway 129, many sections of the drive take you along the banks of the river and the breathtaking scenery that Thomson described as “the finest canoe trip in the world.” There is a monument erected just before the falls in memory of Tom Thomson.

- Sheri Minardi

Read the full article about visiting Aubrey Falls.