Ragged Falls

When the Oxtongue River begins its adventure to the Lake of Bays, it leaps joyfully over the Tea Lake Dam in Algonquin Park, and then descends over a series of waterfalls and rapids.





















There's Elbow Falls -- you don't want to try canoeing this one. It does exactly what you'd expect from the name: turns almost 90 degrees, with the water crashing into the cliff. It's a hard one to get to, however, for spectators.





















Ragged Falls is the highest of the waterfalls the river meets. It is also beautifully accessible. A small provincial park, there is ample parking right off Hwy. 60, and it's a short hike in to the Falls themselves. They are spectacular in any season. In their winter whites, they are truly breathtaking.




















Some of the Seniors for Nature club hiked in to admire Nature's handiwork in late February. You should see this water a little later in the year as well, when it is in full spate with the spring run-off. Wow.

Next the water runs through the Oxtongue Rapids, and the Hogs' Trough -- a narrowing of the rapids that funnels the jubilant water through slabbed sides of Shield Rock resembling a feeding trough. This one is easy to access. There is a wonderful little Parkette, originally developed by the local Dwight Lion's Club. There is a cairn in the park to commemorate the Lions who were instrumental in creating this parkette. There are picnic tables here in summer, and it's a lovely walk along the river's edge. The Hunter's bridge spanning the rapids gives access to Algonquin Highlands, and in winter is part of a popular snowmobile trail network.


From here, there's only one more waterfall -- at Marsh's Falls, just off Hwy 35. Below this the river runs smooth until it empties into Dwight Bay. This lower portion of the river makes a brilliant canoe trip. Bondi has property on the river, and we can arrange to put canoes into the water just below the falls. Marsh's Falls was once the site of both a thriving sawmill and a boat work. Some of the historic lake steamers that once plied the Lake of Bays were built right here. The spring flood would bring log drives crashing down from the Park, some of it would stay at the local mill, but much more would continue its journey through the Lake of Bays to more distant mills and destinations.