Vaughan to Killarney: the white mountains at the end of Highway 637

Killarney, and why it is worth the road

Killarney Provincial Park is the park the painters made: A.Y. Jackson and his Group of Seven colleagues painted the La Cloche hills — white quartzite ridges above lakes so clear they are blue from the shore — and lobbied Ontario to protect them, and the result is a wilderness of ridges and lakes at the top of Georgian Bay with one road into its edge and a village of five hundred people at the end of it. The road is Highway 637, sixty-seven kilometres from Highway 69 to the village, with the park's George Lake entrance along it; the village has a harbour, a lodge, a lighthouse and a fish-and-chip bus on the dock that people drive five hours for. For Vaughan it is the longest Ontario trip on this site that families still call a weekend, and the one where a chauffeured vehicle turns a slog into a drive.

The Crack

The Crack is the trail: six kilometres each way from a trailhead on Highway 637, climbing through the forest to a cleft in the quartzite ridge and a view over Killarney Lake and the La Cloche range that is the province's most photographed hilltop. It is a three-to-five-hour walk with a scramble at the top, for adults and children over ten with proper shoes, and it needs a day-use permit from the park. A chauffeured group is dropped at the trailhead at nine and collected at two, with the vehicle in the meantime at the lodge or the village — the arrangement a family car cannot make. The Granite Ridge trail near the George Lake campground (two kilometres, two lookouts) is the family alternative, and the Chikanishing trail along the bay is the flat one.

George Lake and the canoe

The park's front country is George Lake: the campground, the day-use beach, the canoe rentals, and a paddle across the lake to the quartzite shore that is the easiest way to see the white rock up close. Families camping book the Sprinter drop with the camping load and the return a week later; families at the lodge do George Lake as an afternoon. The park's interior — Killarney Lake, O.S.A. Lake, the ridges — is a backcountry canoe trip that a chauffeured weekend does not attempt and does not need to.

The village and the lodge

Killarney village is a harbour at the mouth of the channel between the mainland and George Island, with the Killarney Mountain Lodge on the water — a resort with a lodge, cabins, a dining room, a pool and a marina, the base for most Vaughan bookings — and Herbert Fisheries' fish-and-chip bus on the town dock, whose Georgian Bay whitefish is the lunch that ends every Killarney story. The lighthouse walk along the channel, the general store, and the boat tours from the lodge's marina to the islands fill the rest of a village afternoon. A Luxury SUV suits a couple or a family at the lodge; a Sprinter suits two families or the camping drop.

The road

Highway 400 north to its end past Parry Sound, Highway 69 north through the French River country, and Highway 637 west for its sixty-seven kilometres of forest, rock and lake to the village — five hours from Woodbridge with one stop at Parry Sound, and a road whose last hour is the reason a chauffeur matters: two lanes, no services, moose signs, and a family car arriving at the lodge at dinnertime with a tired driver. The chauffeured Sprinter arrives with the family fed and rested; the Parry Sound post covers the stop on the way.

The weekend, in shape

Two nights is the minimum and three is the trip. Friday: pickup at nine, Parry Sound for lunch, the lodge by three, the lighthouse walk and dinner. Saturday: the Crack for the walkers, Granite Ridge and the George Lake beach for the rest, the fish bus at the dock at four. Sunday: a lodge boat tour or a George Lake canoe in the morning, and the road home at noon with the family asleep by the French River. Daily hire for the vehicle staying is the booking, priced in the booking engine before you commit.

What the chauffeur replaces

Ten hours of driving over a weekend, the last two of them on a road with no shoulders; the trailhead lot that fills; the drive home after a six-hour hike. The fare for a Sprinter of eight divides into a number that two cars' fuel and two exhausted drivers do not beat; for a family of four it is a comfort purchase for a park that deserves to be arrived at properly.

Seasons

July and August for the water; September for the walking weather and the first colour on the hardwood slopes under the quartzite; the first week of October for the full colour, when the lodge is booked months ahead; May and June for the empty trails and the blackflies. Highway 637 is open in winter and the lodge runs a winter season, but the park's winter is for the prepared and a chauffeured winter weekend is a lodge-and-snowshoe one.

The weekend, in order, for a group of six

Friday: pickup at 8:30 from two Thornhill addresses; the 400 with the group at the Sprinter's tables; Parry Sound at eleven for an early lunch on the waterfront; Highway 69 through the French River; the Highway 637 turn at two, sixty-seven kilometres of forest and rock with the first quartzite showing white above the trees near the George Lake entrance; the lodge by three thirty. The lighthouse walk along the channel before dinner; the dining room; the dock at dusk.

Saturday: the four walkers dropped at the Crack trailhead on Highway 637 at nine with water and lunch, the two non-walkers driven to the George Lake beach with the canoe rental for a paddle to the white rock; the chauffeur back at the trailhead at two; the fish bus at the town dock at four for everyone; the lodge's pool. Sunday: the lodge's boat tour of the islands at ten, checkout, the road home at noon with a French River stop and Parry Sound for dinner; Thornhill by eight. Three days of daily hire, one number in the booking engine, six people who saw the park the painters saw and drove none of it.

The Crack, step by step

The trailhead is a lot on the north side of Highway 637 about ten kilometres east of the village, with a self-serve permit box; the trail follows the La Cloche Silhouette route through hardwood forest for the first four kilometres, mostly flat with wet sections and boardwalks, before the climb — a kilometre of boulders and the final scramble up through the cleft in the quartzite. The top is a broad white ledge with Killarney Lake below to the north and the ridges of the range beyond it; people picnic there for an hour. Down is the same way and takes as long. Water, food, proper shoes, no dogs on the scramble, and a start by nine on a hot day; the park's page has the trail's conditions and closures.

The lodge, and the village's other stays

Killarney Mountain Lodge has grown from a 1950s fishing lodge into a resort with a main lodge, the Carousel Lounge on the water, cabins and suites, a pool, the marina and the boat tours; it is the base for a chauffeured weekend because the vehicle can stay in its lot and the village is a walk. The Sportsman's Inn across the channel is the older, smaller alternative with its own dining room; the park's George Lake campground is the family camping version, with the Sprinter dropping the load. The travel desk holds the lodge, which in the first week of October is booked in spring.

The North Channel and the boat tours

Killarney sits on the North Channel, the stretch of Georgian Bay between the mainland and Manitoulin Island where the sailing community cruises in July and August, and the lodge's boat tours go out among the islands — the lighthouse on the point, the Bustard Islands, the pink granite and the white quartzite meeting at the water. A family that does not walk the Crack does the boat; a couple does both.

The road, honestly

Highway 637 is sixty-seven kilometres of two-lane road with no services, no fuel and no phone signal for much of it, through forest and over rock cuts; moose stand on it at dusk; it is beautiful and it is the reason a family arriving in its own car after five hours of driving is not at its best. The chauffeured Sprinter has a driver who has driven it, fuel taken on at Highway 69, and a family that spent the last hour watching the quartzite appear. In October the road is empty and the colours are on both sides; in winter it is plowed and northern.

Pickup notes

Highway 400 for every Vaughan community, then the 69; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 400 at Major Mackenzie, a Thornhill one crosses on Highway 7, and the fare, quoted from the exact address, reflects the ten minutes' difference. Give us the lodge or the campsite, the nights, the Crack day and who is walking it, the seats, the loads and the canoe, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Packing for Killarney

Walking shoes with grip for the Crack's boulders and the quartzite, which is slick when wet; a daypack with two litres of water per walker and lunch, because there is nothing on the trail; layers, because the top of the ridge is windier and cooler than the trailhead; bug repellent in June; swimsuits for George Lake; cash for the fish bus, which is a bus. The Sprinter's bay carries the rest and the lodge has the laundry. The chauffeur keeps a first-aid kit and the park's map in the vehicle, and phone signal returns at the village.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address to the lodge or the campground with the nights, the Crack day, the seats, the loads and the canoe; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before, and the travel desk can hold the lodge, which is the scarce item.

Book the Killarney weekend