William Ennis
The falls from the viewing stand.
Words by William Ennis
Chutes Provincial Park is located in the Town of Massey on the north side of Can-17, between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie. Its small size of 108 hectares doesn’t sound impressive, but the view of the falls and rapids make it worth a visit.
The park is ideal as a stopover when driving along Highway 17, perhaps as you make your way across Canada. The 130-site campground has electrical available if needed, and many are suitable for longer rigs but there are no drive-through sites. One section that is appreciated by many is its radio-free zone. Some of the camping loops also put you quite near the river, close enough to hear the sound of the falling water to lull you to sleep.
William Ennis
Snug but cozy campsites. Some are very close to the river.
The trees around the campsites, which are on the west side of the river, are mainly red pine and jack pine. On the east side of the river is a greater mixture of trees with poplar, sugar maple, pine and spruce. These you can see on the Twin Bridge Hiking Trail.
The area where the campground is located looked much different when the shore of Lake Huron was much higher. It would have been a fairly level forested plain with the Aux Sables River passing over it. As the level of Lake Huron fell, the river began cutting into the deposits of soil that formed the old lake bed. The river exposed the rocks of the Canadian Shield and in the location of the park it created the Seven Sisters Rapids and the falls. Erosion over time created a large open area below the falls where the river meanders across the sediments that fell out of the running water when the current slowed below the falls. This is an area many people use for picnicking and swimming.
William Ennis
Rapids at foot of falls.
If you camp on Big Chute Crescent you’ll be close to the river. There is a long wooden stairway down to a path that leads to a viewing stand above the falls, and provides excellent views of the river plunging down into the gorge. You also can see the sandy bathing area below. Another stairway leads down almost to the river and a view of the rushing water from the falls. Be cautious, it can be slippery especially when spray has soaked the rocks.
In the early 1900s, the area around Massey was the heart of a large farming community, and the railroad ran through the area. There were mines to the north and forestry was also a big industry. The name of the park, the Chutes, came from the days when logging was king in the area.
William Ennis
Enjoy the heavily forested trails.
Every winter the north rang with the sounds of saws and axes felling the trees as fast as the men could work. Every spring it was log-drive time. The logs were dumped into the river and floated south. Where the river narrowed, choke points caused the logs to jam into huge locked piles of timber, and men risked their lives walking the logs, prodding and pulling, and prying, trying to free the culprit log causing the jam.
To direct the logs around the falls, a 60 m (197 ft) water trough (or chute) was built. Nothing remains of the chute today or any other of the many chutes built in places upstream on the Aux Sables River.
William Ennis
A great picnic area below the falls.
If you want to walk and see more of the park, try the Twin Bridges Trail, which will show you most of everything the park has to offer, including the falls, rapids, flowers, rocky ridges, and bridges. This is a 6 km (4 mi) loop trail that has some strenuous parts, but you can cut across the loop, shortening the hike to about 3 km (2 mi) to avoid the more demanding areas.
If you have some time on your hands, perhaps take a side trip south to Manitoulin Island. This is a chance to visit the world's largest fresh water island. It's a quiet, rural island and is large enough to have more than 100 small lakes on its surface. Some of these lakes have their own islands, so islands on top of an island.
William Ennis
One of the other accessible viewing platforms.
Another nice side trip is to drive north past Elliot Lake to Mississagi Provincial Park and then follow Ont-639 north to Ont-546, and take it southwest back to Iron Bridge on Can-17. There is excellent scenery on that route and not much traffic.
Small, but fully packed, is a good description of Chutes Provincial Park. When your fire is blazing, a full moon is high in the sky, and the waterfall is echoing through the trees, you won't find it small, at all.
For more information: Sectional map of Northern Ontario.