613 Geotours

If you’re looking for a new location for your walks, you can add Mud Lake to your list!

In previous geotours we’ve focused on specific 613 locations to visit for your geographic education and edification. This week though, we’re doing the exact opposite: telling you where not to go. This geotour is all about viewing the fall colours and we’re suggesting you NOT go to Gatineau Park.

This week’s geotour is a scenic spot with some nice walking trails around it. If you haven’t been to Princess Louise Falls in Orleans before, then it’s definitely worth a visit. It looks like something that you should be seeing in a tropical jungle in South America, not in the suburbs of Ottawa.

This week’s geotour starts and ends where the Rideau Canal enters the Ottawa River, just below the Chateau Laurier. The tour will feature a moderate walk or bike ride between two provinces and reveal the history of why the Rideau Canal ends where it does.

This week’s geotour will take you to a newly reopened NCC site – the Carbide Willson ruins in Gatineau Park. You’ll get a moderate hike, a scenic ruin with lots of Instagram cred, and a dose of local history that you may not be aware of.

Have you ever wondered why it was called Mer Bleue, since it’s neither a sea nor particularly blue?

We’ve done a geotour to a beach in a forest… but this week we’re going a little more traditional with a beach on a river.

Up until 1908, the Chaudière Falls had been a major tourist attraction that rivalled even Niagara Falls. Some people even preferred it to Niagara.

Up until this week you’ve been able to drive right up to our geotour locations. This time, we’re adding some serious exercise and a healthy dose of adventure to our geotour choice.

Stromatolites are only found in a few spots in Canada. We’re lucky to have some clearly visible ones in the region at the base of the Champlain bridge, on the Quebec side of the river. They are the most easily accessible ones in Canada.

Just south and a little west of the big box stores of Merivale and Hunt Club lie the Pinhey Forest Dunes. So after you’ve hit the stores, you can hit the trails and dunes.

You’re not travelling anywhere exotic this summer, so where should you be spending your 613 summer staycation? Apt613 has some ideas on places that will satisfy your day-tripping needs