Northwestern Ontario

Understand

In the far west of the province, Ontario's Rainy River District is part of the so-called M.O.M. region, where Manitoba borders Ontario and Minnesota. This area is in the Central time zone. Sparsely-populated Kenora District covers 407,213 km² (almost 38% of the province's land area), extending north to Hudson's Bay and including most of the Ontario-Manitoba border. This area is in the Central time zone.

Getting there

By plane Bearskin Airlines (based in Thunder Bay) provides services to various smaller communities in Northern Ontario, including Red Lake, Dryden, Sioux Lookout and Kenora from Winnipeg.

By bus Ontario Northland operates the following routes in the region as of Dec 2023:

Thunder Bay - Sault Ste. Marie Thunder Bay - Kenora - Winnipeg Kasper Bus serves these routes as of Dec 2023:

Thunder Bay - Longlac Thunder Bay - Sioux Lookout-Winnipeg Thunder Bay - White River

By train Via Rail provides service from Toronto, Parry Sound and Sudbury Junction (10 km from the city), Hornepayne, and Longlac, to Sioux Lookout and several minor stops, through to Winnipeg, Manitoba and westward.

Getting around

Highway 17 from Thunder Bay through Kenora to the Manitoba border, and Highway 11 from Thunder Bay through Fort Frances and Rainy River to the U.S. border are the principal routes. Highway 71 connects Kenora to Fort Frances. Aside from the bus and train services listed in "Get in", there is little public transportation.

See

Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre (Manitou Mounds) 33 km from Rainy River, is one of the most significant centres of early habitation and ceremonial burial in Canada. The centre offers interpretive tours and galleries, a collections space with over 16,000 artifacts, a gift shop that showcases artwork by local Indigenous artists, and a restaurant that serves traditional Ojibway cuisine. The M.S. Kenora cruise is a great way to experience the splendour of Lake of the Woods. The cruise passes by Coney Island beach, through the scenic channels south of Kenora, and returns through the exciting ‘Devil’s Gap’, a channel guarded by a mythical rock bearing its name. Bald eagles and wildlife can also be sighted.

You can see palsa in the far north. Palsas are peat mounds with permanently frozen peat and mineral in the core.

Do

The loop from Thunder Bay through Kenora and Fort Frances via Highways 17, 71 and 11 is a beautiful, 1,050-km scenic drive. The three provincial parks listed above provide great opportunities for hiking, camping and canoeing. Hiking trails are marked. Many towns through the region have outfitters who will equip you with everything you need for fishing, hunting, wilderness canoeing and camping or snowmobiling trips, and can provide guides, or organize the whole trip for you, often to remote private lodges, some accessible only by float planes.