Vaughan to Sault Ste. Marie and the Agawa Canyon: the tour train and the Lake Superior road

The Sault, at the top of the map

Sault Ste. Marie is the city at the rapids between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, on the Canadian side of the St. Marys River with its American twin across the bridge, and it exists on this site for one thing above all: the Agawa Canyon Tour Train, the day-long excursion north along the Algoma Central line into a canyon that has no road, where the train stops for ninety minutes among waterfalls and lookouts before returning. In the last week of September and the first of October the canyon is the most-photographed fall-colour destination in the country and the train sells out months ahead; Vaughan families book the trip in June and drive it in a Sprinter with two days each way. The locks, the canal, the Bushplane Museum, the boardwalk and Lake Superior's shore north of the city fill the rest.

The train

The Tour Train leaves the Sault's station early in the morning and runs 183 kilometres north through the Algoma highlands — the lakes and hills the Group of Seven painted from a boxcar the railway lent them — descending into the canyon by late morning; the stop is ninety minutes for the Black Beaver and Bridal Veil falls trails, the lookout's three hundred stairs, and the river, and the return reaches the city in the late afternoon. It is a ten-hour day in a coach seat with large windows, a dining car and commentary, and children over six and grandparents alike take to it. The chauffeur drops at the station at seven and collects at five; the day's booking is the train's, and the fare that day is a pair of short transfers inside the daily hire.

The locks, the canal and the museum

The Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site is the 1895 lock on the Canadian side, now a recreational lock with a walking trail around it and Whitefish Island's paths beside the rapids; across the river the American Soo Locks pass the lake freighters, seen from the Canadian boardwalk or, with passports, from the American viewing platform after a bridge crossing. The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre on the waterfront is the family museum — the planes that opened the north, a fire-fighting exhibit, a flight simulator — and two hours. The boardwalk connects them; the chauffeur drops at each and the Sprinter waits.

Lake Superior's shore

North of the city Highway 17 runs along Lake Superior to Lake Superior Provincial Park and beyond, and a chauffeured day on it is the trip's second highlight: the Chippewa Falls, Batchawana Bay's beach, the Agawa Bay pictographs an hour and a half north — rock paintings on a cliff at the water's edge, reached by a short trail and a ledge — and the Old Woman Bay lookout. It is a Superior coast drive that the Group of Seven's canvases made famous and that a family in its own car, after the train day, does not attempt; a chauffeured family does it Sunday and is driven back to the hotel.

The drive north, in two days

The 400 to its end, Highway 69 to Sudbury — four and a quarter hours, the Sudbury post covers the city as a stop — and Highway 17 west along the North Channel through Espanola, Blind River and Bruce Mines to the Sault, another three and a half. Vaughan families do it as a night in Sudbury each way with Science North on the return, or as a single long day north with the group at the Sprinter's tables and two stops; the chauffeur suggests the two-day version with children. Highway 17 is two lanes for most of its length and a northern road in any season.

The trip, in shape

Four nights: Vaughan to Sudbury (night one), Sudbury to the Sault with the locks and the boardwalk in the afternoon (night two), the train (night three), the Superior shore and the museum (night four), and the drive home in one long day or with a Sudbury night. Daily hire for the whole trip is the booking, priced in the booking engine before you commit, and the travel desk holds the train seats — the scarce item — and the hotels.

The vehicle

A Sprinter for a family or a group, with the tables and the bay for four days of luggage; a Luxury SUV for a couple or a family of four. Winter tires from October; the train's season includes a winter Snow Train and the drive north in February is a chauffeur's job entirely.

What the chauffeur replaces

Eighteen hours of northern highway across a week; the Superior shore drive that a tired driver skips; the two-lane Highway 17 in a fall rain. The daily-hire fare for four or five days is a large number and it is honest about what it buys: a week in which the family was driven to a canyon, a lock and a Great Lake, and drove nothing.

Seasons

The last week of September and the first of October for the canyon's colour, booked in June; summer for the train's green season, the shore's beaches and the locks; winter for the Snow Train and a northern road best left to a chauffeur.

The trip, in order, for a group of eight

Day 1, Thursday: pickup at 8 a.m. from two Thornhill addresses; the Sprinter up the 400 with the group at the tables; Parry Sound at 10:30, the French River at noon for lunch at the bridge, Sudbury by 1:30; Science North's afternoon for the grandchildren, the hotel by Ramsey Lake. Day 2, Friday: Highway 17 west at nine along the North Channel — Espanola, Blind River for lunch on the water, Bruce Mines, the Sault by 2:30; the boardwalk and the Canadian lock in the afternoon, the hotel on the waterfront, an early night. Day 3, Saturday: the station at seven, the Agawa Canyon Tour Train north, the canyon at eleven, the falls and the lookout's stairs, the train back by five, dinner. Day 4, Sunday: the Superior shore — Chippewa Falls, Batchawana Bay, the Agawa Bay pictographs, Old Woman Bay — with a picnic and the return to the city by four; the Bushplane Museum at five before it closes. Day 5, Monday: the long day home, Highway 17 and the 69 with a Sudbury lunch, Thornhill by eight. Five days of daily hire, one number in the booking engine, and eight people who saw the canyon, the lock and Superior and did none of the driving.

The train, seat by seat

The Tour Train's coaches are refurbished with large windows, the dining car serves breakfast on the way north and lunch in the canyon or on the return, and the commentary — a GPS-triggered narration of the Group of Seven's Algoma, the railway's history and the canyon's geology — plays through the coaches. Seats are reserved and the Agawa Canyon Tour Train site sells them by coach; the fall-colour dates open in the spring and the weekend ones go first. In the canyon the ninety minutes are enough for the Bridal Veil and Black Beaver falls trails on the flat and the lookout's stairs for the fit; the train does not wait for stragglers, and the conductor says so.

Superior's shore, stop by stop

North of the city Highway 17 climbs the Superior escarpment and the day the chauffeur drives is this: Chippewa Falls at forty minutes, the falls beside the highway with a picnic ground and the plaque marking the halfway point of the Trans-Canada Highway; Batchawana Bay at an hour with its beach and the Voyageurs' cookhouse for lunch; the Lake Superior Provincial Park's southern entrance and the Agawa Bay visitor centre at an hour and a half; the pictographs' trail, half a kilometre down to a ledge at the water's edge where the Ojibwe paintings of a horned lynx and canoes are on the cliff — a ledge that is not for the unsteady when the lake is up; Katherine Cove's beach; Old Woman Bay's lookout at two hours. The Ontario Parks page has the trail's conditions; the chauffeur turns for the city when the group says so.

The locks, the boardwalk and the American side

The Canadian canal's 1895 lock is a National Historic Site with a walking loop around the lock, the powerhouse and the rapids on Whitefish Island; across the river the American Soo Locks pass the thousand-foot lakers between Superior and Huron, and the Canadian boardwalk gives a view of them, while the International Bridge — five minutes from the canal — gives a family with passports the American viewing platform and Michigan's Sault for an afternoon. The border guide covers the crossing; the chauffeur has made it.

Pickup notes

Highway 400 for every Vaughan community, the 69 to Sudbury and Highway 17 west; a Woodbridge pickup joins the 400 at Major Mackenzie and a Thornhill one crosses on Highway 7. Give us the train date and coach, the nights and hotels, the seats and the loads, and whether the American side is wanted; the travel desk holds the train and the hotels and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Winter, and the Snow Train

The Tour Train's winter season — the Snow Train, on selected weekends — takes the same line north through a canyon of ice and snow and back by dark, and the drive to the Sault in February on Highway 17 is the reason it is a chauffeur's trip entirely: two lanes along the North Channel in lake-effect snow, a Sudbury night, and a Luxury SUV or Sprinter on winter tires with a driver who has driven the road in weather. Vaughan couples book it as the trip nobody else has done; the Sudbury post covers the halfway night.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the trip with the nights, the train date and the shore day; tell us the seats and the loads, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the train's departure on it.

Book the Agawa Canyon trip