Natural Features
The wonders of Mashkinonje are best known by field naturalists from North Bay and Sudbury; and botany and nature-based tourism students from the local colleges and university.
Mashkinonje Provincial Park consists of a diverse system of wetlands supporting all the major wetland types; marshes, bogs, swamps, fens and ponds; interspersed with undulating granite ridges that cover over 2000 hectares along the West Arm of Lake Nipissing. The park counts among its many wetlands two provincially significant areas the Loudon Basin Peatlands and the Muskrat Creek complexes.
The parks features are the result of a post-glacial lake that covered the area combined with a series of parallel low elevation folded bedrock uplands. The low upland bedrock areas were wave washed with soils eroded and deposited in the depressions. The amount of soil deposited determines if the depressions are nutrient rich or nutrient poor. The broken drainage also has a range of moisture levels from wet to dry. Add to moisture and nutrient variability- wave action on Lake Nipissing and aspect (south vs. north facing slopes) and the result are a variety of wetlands habitats that make Mashkinonje a very interesting location to observe nature.
A combined group of community and educational partners have developed a system of hiking trails in the park to make the park features available to the public.
Park Facilities and Activities
10 hiking trails in stacked loops totaling 30 km
For more information:
Mashkinonje Provincial Park
c/o Killarney Provincial Park
Killarney, Ontario
P0M 2A0
705-287-2900
Visit the Friends
of Mashkinonje web site.
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