By Sault Tourism
What can you say about Lake Superior? It is wild, it is rugged, it is beautiful. It can be angry and violent, it can be calm with glassy water reflecting a perfectly clear blue sky. The sunsets can be some of most beautiful anywhere, and the maple forests that hug the coastline put on a fall colour display of bright reds, oranges and yellows so spectacular you’ll be telling your friends for years.
A drive along the coastline from Sault Ste. Marie will let you experience all of this. Get out of your car, RV or motorbike at any of the many stops along the way. Fill your camera up with countless shots of this beautiful coast. Visit in spring, summer, fall or winter for a different experience each season. Be inspired by the incredible Lake Superior coastal drive from Sault Ste. Marie.
Driving north on highway 17 from Sault Ste. Marie, your first close up view of Lake Superior will be at Haviland Bay. Haviland is a small community with a public beach and a great eatery, the Havilland Shores Kitchen and Bar. As you drive through Haviland you’ll pass over a causeway, which offers spectacular views of the lake on one side, and rugged, forested hills of the Canadian Shield on the other.
Continue driving north from Haviland and soon you’ll reach Chippewa Falls, the halfway point of Trans Canada Highway, highway 17. Chippewa Falls is also a significant spot on the Group of Seven driving tour, with the falls inspiring a number of famous paintings including “Streambed, Lake Superior Country”. and J.E.H. MacDonald’s ‘Batchewana Rapid‘.
The falls can be seen from the viewing bridge near the parking lot, or you can take a short hike alongside the waterfall. Please proceed with caution as trails can be challenging beside this fast moving water!
Batchawana Bay, in Batchawana Bay Provincial Park, is another beautiful stop along the Superior coast. The 4km long sandy beach is the star of the show, with some of the warmest water in Lake Superior making it a popular spot for swimmers and beach goers.
Stop by the Voyageur Lodge for some famous apple fritters, lunch, or a souvenir from the gift shop.
Just a few kilometers further along the highway from Batchawana you’ll reach Pancake Bay, Agawa Crafts and the Canadian Carver. Pancake Bay, also within a provincial park, is the perfect spot to get out, explore and stretch your legs if you wish. The beach is simply immaculate; 4km of perfect white sand and crystal clear water, great for swimming in and generally relaxing on. Then there is the Edmund Fitzgerald Lookout hike trail, a 2-3 hour round trip that takes you up to an incredible view of the Superior coast. You may even catch a glimpse of the resting place of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which tragically sunk during a November storm in 1975.
Agawa and Crafts and the Canadian Carver is an impressive stop, with some beautiful one-of-a-kind carvings, painting and other crafts offering the perfect souvenir for visitors.
Continuing past Pancake Bay, highway 17 turns north again, and the coast leaves the relative shelter of Whitefish Bay. Now, more exposed to the westerly winds and storms of Superior, the shoreline becomes more rugged, more rocky but just as beautiful as further south. Sawpit Bay and the roadside Wilson Lake are perfect examples of the Superior coast’s fascinating landscape.
Fifteen minutes north of Sawpit Bay lies Alona Bay, a beautifully rocky Lake Superior Beach. Alona Bay lies inside two of the additional, southerly parts of Lake Superior Provincial Park. A roadside rest-stop allows visitors to get out and enjoy the stunning scenic lookout across Alona Bay.
Lake Superior Provincial Park Visitor Centre is located at the south end of ‘the Park’, as locals call it, roughly 90 minutes north of Sault Ste. Marie and just north of the Montreal River. The visitor centre is a great stopping point on the Superior coast, with lots of information about the area, paths to the beautiful Agawa Bay beach, helpful staff and a giftshop. The centre itself is filled with interactive displays that highlights the “Power of Lake Superior” as well as the park’s cultural history and natural ecosystems. You’ll also find a display about the Group of Seven, a replica lighthouse and more here.
A short drive north from the visitor centre takes you to the Agawa Rock Pictographs. A clearly marked sign on the highway directs visitors to a parking area at the trail head – map coordinates here.
The Agawa Rock Pictographs is one of the most famous pictograph sites in Canada and is one of the most visited indigenous archaeological sites too. It is a sacred site where generations of Ojibwe have come to record dreams, visions and events. Please respect and preserve the pictographs by not touching the paintings.
The images visible today, include canoes and animals such as moose, deer, bear and caribou. The most recognizable painting consisting of a spined-horned animal said to be “Misshepezhieu”, or the Great Lynx, the spirit of the water. Read more about this important area here.
Sault Ste. Marie has expert tour guides who can provide interpretive tours of the coast. Forest The Canoe operate a True North Adventure Bus in August and the fall months, and they also offer year round tours that can be tailored to visitor’s needs. Thrive Tours also offer tours of the local area including the Superior Coast, visit our Tours & Guides page for more information.
The Lake Superior coast – something you have to explore.
By Diana Lee @only1phoenixx
Many of us that enjoy spending time in nature love learning more about the spaces we play in. Whether it’s learning about new paddling spots to launch from or about the wildlife we’ll see along the way, we outdoor enthusiasts typically want to get more out of our adventures!
When you go on an Indigenous-guided tour, be prepared to see, explore, and appreciate the lands and waters we play in from a different lens by recognizing and supporting Indigenous People’s deep connections with these spaces.
On a recent trip to Sault Ste. Marie in Algoma Country, home of the Anishinaabe since time immemorial, I spent some time with Thrive Tours, an Indigenous-owned and operated guided ecotourism company, and the experience went above and beyond a paddling tour.
As a non-Indigenous person, I’m always excited to learn more about our amazing province, country, and world. I’ve been lucky enough to join in on a few Indigenous travel adventures from Inuvik, Northwest Territories, to Puvirnituq, Quebec, and I’m happy to share a few highlights from my paddling trip and why you should plan your next adventure with an Indigenous-led tourism operator.
Whether you’re visiting Sault Ste. Marie (traditionally known as Baawaating), or a local, it’s always fun discovering new paddling spots in and around the city. As a stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) aficionado, I bring my paddleboard on all my road trips and travels. I was excited to learn I could BYO (bring your own) SUP for this Thrive Tours paddling adventure!
Our first stop was at Thrive Tours’ home base in the Soo, where I met the owners and operators, Amanda (Biimskoonkwaat) and Brad (Ozhaawashkwaa Animikii). Together, they adventure all year round, offering guided canoe, kayak, hiking, and snowshoeing while promoting and maintaining local Indigenous practices and philosophies.
After chatting about what we felt like doing – canoeing, kayaking, or stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), we packed up everything (yes, everything, haha!) We headed to Garden River, located in Garden River First Nation. I learned that this is a sacred area, and a guided tour is a great way to experience this waterway.
Before launching our boats and board, we began by offering Tobacco to the water, a sacred way to connect with all living things. Brad shared the importance of Semah, the Anishinaabemowin word for Tobacco, “when we place Tobacco in our left hand, it symbolizes the closeness of that medicine to our heart. When we transfer those good thoughts and meaningful intentions into the Semah and place it in the water, we connect with all our ancestors and creation itself.”
Seeing wildlife always sparks joy and the Thrive Tours team combined the sightings with Anishinaabe teachings right on the water. Seeing eagles, migizi in Anishinaabemowin, swooping down from the trees in front of us was incredibly special. Eagles also symbolize love, or zaagi’idiwin, as part of the 7 Grandfather teachings.
As we continued to paddle, the occasional splash of salmons jumping out of the water kept me excited about what we would see (and learn about) around the next bend of the meandering river.
When it was time to take a break, we enjoyed warming up by a mini campfire, with snacks and great conversations while sipping warm Cedar Tea.
During this tour, I got to chat with Lucia Laford, a local Indigenous artist, educator and one of the Thrive Tour guides. Lucia leads a Paddle & Paint Woodland-style painting workshop where participants can create their own nature-inspired painting while out in nature! Lucia also teaches Anishinaabe Art and Material Practices at Algoma University.
“Woodland style is about visualizing the connection and relationships between people, animals, spirits, and nature. I paint my way of life, the Anishinaabe way, which includes ceremony and spirituality, but also my connection to the land and the plant, tree, and animal nations. In this way, my work is completely inspired by nature and the love and respect I feel towards Aki (the earth), Nibi (the water) and all things in creation.
The Paint & Paddle workshop is about connecting with yourself on the water and the land. Woodland art helps deepen that connection by exploring the relationships and personal kinship we have to life around us. We [Thrive Tours] helps facilitate the joy of being on the land and water, and we do so in a safe, respectful, and sustainable way. When paddling, we talk about the concepts in Woodland-style art while sharing Indigenous perspectives and teachings. Paddling and being able to touch the water and land that we are talking about serves as an incredible inspiration when painting!”
– Lucia Laford, Thrive Tour Guide, Woodland style painter and Indigenous Arts educator
For many Indigenous People, music was a way of storing ecological, ancestral, and traditional knowledge and teachings. Passing along that knowledge was often done through stories and songs.
The gentle current carried us along the river while Amanda and Brad, a powwow singer and member of the Black Bull Moose Singers, shared a few honour songs for women and all of creation. Lucia also shared a Water Song*. The lyrics and varied tempo beautifully represent and honour water – from fast-moving rapids to the steady slow flow of a river, like the Garden River we were floating along. We were all invited to sing along and celebrate being on the water.
While I had no expectations for the tour and was open to going with the flow of Thrive Tours, the way we concluded our paddling adventure was incredibly moving. When I asked if they do this for every tour, Amanda explained, “while every experience [with Thrive Tours] unfolds uniquely, we consistently incorporate physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects. Every adventure includes cultural teachings, Indigenous food sharing, nature-based activities, and First Nations ceremonies.”
Authentic Indigenous-led travel experiences can help share the stories, histories, and perspectives we don’t get to hear more often. What we can do as allies is to help support that by taking these tours and being open to learning. These excursions that combine outdoor recreation with learning education alongside an Indigenous guide lead to more consideration, respectful, responsible, and meaningful future adventures, whether we travel solo or with company. Travel experiences like this are a step towards taking us beyond land acknowledgements through active participation and ongoing learning, all while adventuring in the spirit and continuous practice of reconciliation.
Thank you, Amanda, Brad, and Lucia, for the unforgettable time in Sault Ste. Marie. I look forward to seeing you again soon (hopefully in winter, my favourite season!)
Thrive Tours
https://www.thrivetours.ca/about
For more Indigenous-owned or led travel and adventure ideas:
Recommended resources and further reading:
Diana Lee lives for adventure, the great outdoors, and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP)! She is a certified ISA SUP Instructor, a librarian, and a reporter for Get Out There Magazine. Find out what she’SUP to @only1phoenixx on Instagram and Twitter.
By Virginia Marshall
Where Fort Creek enters the St. Marys River just below the historic locks at Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site, it’s a shallow channel scarcely broad enough to turn a canoe around. Bridged by boulevards and hemmed by sidewalks and parking lots, the creek disappears altogether for much of its course, buried and nearly forgotten beneath the city above.
On a warm spring evening, I witness a very different Fort Creek, winding through a verdant wetland filled with the sunset songs of veery, Swainson’s thrush and ovenbirds. A contented beaver navigates the meanders, watchful Canada Geese periscope from grassy banks. Perched above downtown, Fort Creek Conservation Area is a remarkable green space within the city.
The way Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy Executive Director, Joanie McGuffin, explains it, Fort Creek is both a living waterway and an allegory for the unseen connections that bind past to present, and culture to ecology.
Revealing hidden connections—between rivers, lakes, watersheds, communities, cultures, people and the planet—is the focus of a new visitor experience developed by the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy in partnership with the Huron-Superior Regional Metis Community.
These interpretive tours provide visitors to Sault Ste. Marie with an exciting new way to discover the city, while making meaningful connections to the Soo’s vibrant Indigenous culture and heritage. Historic images, maps and hands-on materials add texture and context, transforming a modern cityscape into an historic gathering place, and an industrialized urban waterfront into a richly interconnected ecosystem.
For generations, the land that is now downtown Sault Ste. Marie was home to a thriving Métis community. The community was organized into river-lots that gave each family access to the river for travel, harvesting and economic activity. Families kept their animals communally in the area behind their homes and harvested maple sugar in spring along the escarpment. In the mid 1850s, Métis families were displaced from their lands, breaking promises by the Crown agent that their lands would be protected. Despite this injustice, the community continues to call Sault Ste. Marie home.
By sharing Métis perspectives on reciprocity and sustainable practices, the interpretive tours also advance the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy’s work to promote watershed awareness and greater environmental understanding.
“The Métis story inextricably connects culture with ecology,” says McGuffin. “Indigenous people have been able to live with the land and care for our water for thousands of years, because it’s been a reciprocal relationship.”
Tour participants can choose to join a Walking Tour or get on the water with a Walking & Paddling Tour. Both tours travel to the city’s scenic waterfront from the Sault Ste. Marie Métis Cultural Centre—a first of its kind in Ontario. Tours last two hours and are led by a Métis interpretive guide, giving visitors a fascinating glimpse into traditional and contemporary Métis life.
Paddling Tour participants board a Big Canoe—a replica of the 36-foot birch-bark canoes that once freighted furs and trade goods between Montreal and Lake Superior—to learn how the St. Marys River is central to both the story of Sault Ste. Marie, and the Indigenous communities who live here.
McGuffin believes passionately in the power of the Big Canoe to bring people together to share ideas and cultural understanding. In 2019, the Conservancy founded a new program called Canoes for Conservation, and she points to the Big Canoe’s stability, inclusivity and accessibility for non-paddlers and multi-generational groups of all ages.
A highlight of the hour-long canoe portion of the journey is “locking through” the historic Sault Canal. Paddlers then venture onto the mighty St. Marys River—comparable in size and power to the Niagara River—feeling the spray of the rapids and the tug of the current beneath their hull. “It’s very tactile,” says McGuffin, “you have a paddle in your hands, you’re able to feel the water, listen to the water. It’s incredible how far into the rapids you can go—people are amazed by the experience.”
For the Métis Nation of Ontario, the tours are “an outstanding opportunity to grow Indigenous tourism in the north and advance reconciliation,” says community leader, historian and MNO Huron-Superior Regional Councillor, Mitch Case.
“In order to have that reconciliation conversation, Canadians need to understand who we are and what matters to us as a community,” he continues. By connecting across cultures, “we are protecting and preserving our unique heritage and world view.”
Lauren Towell is one of five young Métis community members who joined the interpretive guide team this summer. “The connections I share with the water resonate profoundly with the very fabric of my Métis heritage,” she says. “I take great pride in the task of sharing our story, ensuring that it endures for generations to come.”
Walking tour guide, Jake Chalmers, agrees, “Caring for our forests and wildlife is integral to caring for our Métis culture. Being a tour guide helps me to celebrate and share knowledge about both.”
The tours visit numerous sites of great importance to the Métis community. In just a couple short hours, participants come to understand how connection to the river and love for their ancestors empowers the Métis community here—and what it can teach all of us.
For those visiting the city for the first time, the interpretive tours are also a great way to discover the Soo’s top scenic and cultural attractions.
As we stroll towards the river and the leafy promenades of Parks Canada’s Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site, McGuffin and I pass the Agawa Canyon Tour Train Station and Algoma Conservatory of Music. Housed in a refurbished, century-old sandstone building of the former St. Marys Paper Mill, The Loft is reported to have acoustics rivaling Massey Hall.
Outside, we see a re-creation of the rudimentary locks the voyageurs used to shuttle their Big Canoes around the Whitefish Rapids. Nearby, the weekly Mill Market hosts local food vendors and artisans where a Hudson’s Bay Company Post once stood.
As we walk, McGuffin tells me about the hidden river, where Fort Creek flows unseen beneath the city. She relates how downtown Sault Ste. Marie, from Bay Street to the river, is built entirely on reclaimed shoreline. “It’s not just about what we can see, it’s also what we can’t see,” she says. “When we don’t look at where water comes from and where it goes, we feel no responsibility for what happens along its journey.”
Before returning to the Métis Cultural Centre, we pause at the mouth of Fort Creek, marveling at the resilience and tenacity of water. The story of a people can be like a river that way—sometimes unseen, but always flowing steady and strong.
Guided Walking
Friday and Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m.
Available late June–late September
Tours are 2 hours/5 km in duration
Cost is $50/adult or $25/student, group rate (max. 10 people) $350
Guided Walking & Paddling Tour
Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 5 p.m.
Available late June–late September
Tours are 2 hours/7 km in duration
Cost is $90/adult or $45/student, group rate (max. 12 people) $675
All paddling safety equipment is included
Online Reservations
Individual and group reservations available. Learn more and book your tour now at Métis Tours.
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision acknowledging the Metis Nation as a distinct Indigenous culture in Canada with a visit to the newly opened Métis Cultural Centre at 136 John Street.
By Tourism Sault Ste. Marie
Forest The Canoe are offering a variety of guided tours to see some of the best fall colours in Ontario. The True North Adventure Bus has full day, morning and evening guided tours running in September and October.
Witness the stunning fall colours you’ve seen on Instagram. Paddle beautiful inland lakes. Hike up the iconic Robertson Cliffs to witness a stunning vista of autumn colours that stretch as far as Lake Superior.
Contact experienced tour guides Forest The Canoe to see some of the most beautiful fall colours in Ontario. Ride the True North Adventure Bus this fall, with daily tours departing from Sault Ste. Marie.
Four fall colour tours are offered on the True North Adventure Bus, each a truly unique adventure, and a each chance to see and explore a different part of Northern Ontario. Tours last a full day, a morning or an evening with pick ups from local hotels in Sault Ste. Marie throughout the day.
Friends of Fall Colours
Explore the autumn colour change by water and land. Tours run 9.30am – 6.30pm.
Sunday, Sept 18th,
Friday, Sept 23rd,
Saturday, Sept 24th,
Sunday, Sept 25th,
Saturday, Oct 1st,
Sunday, Oct 2nd,
Wednesday, Oct 5th,
Friday, Oct 7th,
Friends of Fall Colours: Lite Edition
A micro version of Friends of Fall Colours. Tours run 4.30pm – 9.30pm
Wednesday, Sept 21st
Monday, Oct 3rd
Chase The Train
Chase the train all the way to Searchmont, then explore a beautiful waterfall on the Goulais River. Tours run 8am – 12.30pm.
Thursday, Sept 22nd
Monday, Oct 3rd
Tuesday, Oct 4th
Thursday, Oct 6th
Coastal Fall Colours at Sunset
Experience breathtaking views of Algoma Highlands along the greatest lake all the way to Montreal River. Tours run 5pm – 9.30pm
Thursday, Sept 22nd,
Monday, Sept 26th, Thursday, Sept 29th
Tuesday, Oct 4th,
Thursday, Oct 6th,
Sit back and enjoy the drive, that’s all you’ll have to do with the True North Adventure Bus. Expert, certified tour guides Ryan and Shana provide informative narration to help you get the most of your experience. Enjoy your day with all the quality equipment and safety information you will need.
